A porcelain-maker based in Paris and then Avon near Fontainebleau, Jacob-Petit is famous for his decorative objects, bottles, nightlights, inkwells and clocks, whose baroque exuberance was inspired by 18th-century French and German styles.
The figure of the Mameluke horseman was inspired by a work by Debucourt, The Retreating Mameluke, engraved in 1803 after a watercolour by Carle Vernet. The profusion of gold that emphasises the rocaille contours of the ornamentation, the exuberance of the ornamentation and the shimmering, harmonious colours express the verve and inventiveness of the most famous French porcelain-maker of 1830-1860.
