Armchair (part of a set)

Georges Jacob

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Part of a larger set of seat furniture, these elegant armchairs with a concave back, are so-called fauteuils en cabriolet. Their frames are stamped on the underside I-B, which is believed to be an alternate mark for Georges Jacob (master 1765–1814), one of the most successful chair makers of eighteenth-century France, who supplied beds and seat furniture to the crown. Epitomizing neoclassicism, the chairs have tapering and spirally fluted legs, and frames carved with rosettes, acanthus leaves, and twisted rope ornament. The unusual scrolled top rail of the back makes a reference to the capital of the Ionic order, one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art