Very Fine Late 19th Century Gilt Bronze Mounted Commode by Paul Sormani

By Paul Sormani

Beautiful marble top, above a bronze frieze, with one long drawer above two deep long drawers. Four scrolled acanthus clasps on each corner of the drawers.

After the 18th century model by Jean-François Leleu.

Signed Paul Sormani 10 R Charlot, Paris to a bronze plaque on the drawer and P. Sormani Paris to the carcass.

Paul Sormani (1817-1877), was born in Venice in 1817, and was a maker of Fine ‘meubles de luxe’. His work was described in the catalogue of the 1867 Exposition Universelle as: ‘toute sa production révèle une qualité d’exécution de tout premier ordre’.

Sormani exhibited in Paris in 1849, 1855, 1862, 1867, 1878 and 1900 and in London in 1862, winning numerous medals. Amongst the items Sormani exhibited at the 1900 Exposition Universelle were a Louis XV style bureau and a Louis XVI style commode both based on originals held in the Jones Collection at the South Kensington Museum.

Jean-François Leleu was one of the favoured assistants in the workshop of the great ébéniste Jean-François Oeben (1721-1763). After the early death of his master, he hoped to be entrusted with the running of the workshop, but was superseded by Jean-Henri Riesener (1734-1806), another of Oeben’s assistants. Riesener married Oeben’s widow and went on to become the court ébéniste of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette. Leleu left the workshop, became maître-ébéniste in 1764 and set up on his own. He attracted a grand and fastidious clientele, notably the Duc d’Uzés, Baron d’Ivry and Ange-Laurent Lalive de Jully.