Jacques Caffiéri was the fifth son of
Philippe Caffieri (1634-1716), the founder of this family of artists. Jacques was received a
maître fondeur-ciseleur by 1715, the date of his first known work, a design for a pall for the
Corporation des Fondeurs-Ciseleurs, one of two Parisian
guilds that oversaw works cast in metal, from full-scale sculptures to gilt-bronze furniture mounts, wall-lights and candlesticks. As
fondeurs-ciseleurs, "casters and finishers", the renown of the
Caffieri family has centred on Jacques, though later it is not easy to distinguish between Jacques' work and that of Jacques' son, the younger Philippe (1714–1777). Caffieri was attached as
fondeur-ciseleur to the
Bâtiments du Roi in 1736. A large proportion of his brilliant achievement as a designer and chaser in
bronze and other metals was executed for the crown at
Versailles,
Fontainebleau,
Marly,
Compiègne,
Choisy and the
Château de La Muette, and the crown, ever in his debt, still owed him money at his death. Philippe and his son Jacques undoubtedly worked together in the Appartement du Dauphin at Versailles, and although much of their contribution has disappeared, the gilt-bronze decorations of the marble chimney-piece still remain. They belong to the best of full-blown
Rococo style; vigorous and graceful in design, they are executed with splendid skill. After the elder Philippe's death in 1716, Jacques continued to work for the crown, but had many private clients. From the Caffieri workshop in rue des Canettes came an amazing amount of work, chiefly in the shape of those gilt-bronze furniture mounts which adorned furniture by the best
ébénistes of Paris. Little of his achievement was ordinary; an astonishingly large proportion of it is famous. In the
Wallace Collection, London, is the royal
commode delivered by
Antoine-Robert Gaudreau,
ébéniste du Roi, in 1739 for Louis XV's bedchamber at Versailles: it is richly mounted with an integrated series of corner mounts,
chutes and
sabots, and the drawer-fronts and a single composition into which the handles are fully integrated. It must have been the result of close cooperation between Caffiéri and Gaudreau, who was responsible for the veneered carcase. In 1747 Caffiéri supplied gilt-bronze mounts for the marble chimneypiece in the Dauphin's bedroom at Versailles. Caffieri also produced gilt-bronze cases for clocks, both mantel clocks and the
cartel clocks that combined clock and bracket in one unified design, to be mounted on a wall. A detailed inventory of the Caffieri workshop made in 1747 enables scholars to identify some unsigned clockcases from the workshop: a fully Rococo cartel clock with a movement by Julien Le Roy is at the Getty Museum: it is inscribed
fait par Caffiery in a
cartouche below the dial. In 1740, Caffieri's wife purchased a royal privilege, which allowed the Caffieri workshop to gild bronze as well as cast it within the same workshop; ordinarily the processes were divided between two Parisian
corporations, jealous of their jurisdictions, the
fondeurs-ciseleurs and the
ciseleurs-doreurs. His signature incised in gilt-bronze kept his name alive in the nineteenth century and gained him an entry in
Encyclopædia Britannica 1911, though the extreme
Rococo style of which he was a consummate master laid his work open to disapproving commentary. Two monumental gilt-bronze chandeliers in the
Wallace Collection, London, bear his signature; one of them was a wedding present from Louis XV to
Louise-Elisabeth of France in 1739; the other is signed and dated 1751. The famous astronomical clock made by
C.-S. Passement and
Dauthiau for Louis XV, 1749–1753, is housed in a
Rococo case signed by Caffieri. Another clock, with a movement by Balthasar Martinot in an extreme Rococo style gilt-bronze case, belongs to the Duke of Buccleuch, at
Boughton House A pair of fire-dogs signed and dated 1752 is in the
Cleveland Museum of Art Two large gilt-bronze mirror-frames by Caffieri, to a design by
Ange-Jacques Gabriel, were intended as a gift to the
Sultan of Turkey; the price was an astonishing 24,982
livres. He made a great cross and six candlesticks for the high altar of
Notre-Dame de Paris, which disappeared in the
French Revolution, but similar work for
Bayeux Cathedral still exists. A wonderful enamelled toilet set which he executed for the Princess of Asturias has also disappeared. ==Sons==