82. Paul Charles SORMANI Secretary with... - Lot 82 - Farrando

Lot 82
Go to lot
Estimation :
8000 - 10000 EUR
Result without fees
Result : 36 000EUR
82. Paul Charles SORMANI Secretary with... - Lot 82 - Farrando
82. Paul Charles SORMANI Secretary with flap inlaid with floral scrolls tied by a ribbon and a basket of flowers flanked by scrolls and terrestrial globes in its lower part. The fields and sides inlaid with a trellis of flowers. It opens from top to bottom with a central drawer, a large flap revealing two cavities and a drawer surrounded by five drawers, and two leaves. The interior, veneered with flamed sycamore and highlighted with amaranth. The uprights with cut sides rest on a base with offsets; the sheathed feet are set in foliated sabots. Rich ornamentation in chased and gilded bronze such as console falls with pearls and foliage, apron, openwork gallery, rosettes and rais-de-coeur friezes. The central drawer is engraved MA and the flap is decorated in its center with an oval medallion illustrating two doves beaking among clouds, a bow and a quiver. The top is made of peach blossom marble with a gallery. Signed on the lock of the flap Paul Sormani, 10 rue Charlot Paris. Louis XVI style, late 19th century. (Slightly insolated). H : 153 cm - W : 108 cm - D : 42 cm. The secretary that we present is the one reproduced in L'Ameublement d'art français 1850-1900, Camille Mestdagh, Les éditions de l'Amateur, Paris, 2010, page 214 (fig. 252). This secretary is the result of the union of two models of secretary, the one delivered in 1783 to Marie-Antoinette by Jean-Henri Riesener and now preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of New York (inv. 20.155.11); and the one preserved in the Frick Collection (inv.1915.5.75). From the former, our secretary takes part of the ornamentation in gilded bronze, such as the console falls, the figure of Marie-Antoinette on the belt and the imposing leafy sabots. From the second, our secretary borrows the inlaid decoration and the central medallion in gilt bronze. It is therefore a creation of Sormani, from two sources of inspiration. An identical model was exhibited at the Salon des Industries du Mobilier in 1908 and a similar secretary appears in the commercial catalog of the firm Krieger, Damon et Colin, L.P.A. Colin et Courcier in 1908. Bibliography : PAYNE, C., Paris, la quintessence du meuble au XIXe siècle, Monelle Hayot Editions, 2018.
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue