Object Description
A delicate Napoleon III kingwood parquetry side table attributed to Sormani, the shaped serpentine top with a single frieze drawer above tapering cabriole legs, decorated with inlaid ebony florets on a herringbone ground and fine quality ormolu mounts. French, circa 1860.
Footnote: Paul Sormani (1817-1877) was Italian born, setting up his first workshops in Paris in 1847, finally settling in Rue Charlot in 1867, offering works of ‘ a quality of execution of the first order’. Their specialty was copies of furniture in the style of the ‘ancien regime’. They exhibited at the Universelle Expositions of 1855 and 1867, and afterwards in London in 1862 and were awarded medals for their excellence.