Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze and Japanese Lacquer Mounted Mahogany Cabinet, Circa 1880

Object Description

A Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze and Lacquer Mounted Mahogany Cabinet by Paul Sormani.

Signed to the lockplate ‘P. SORMANI’, 10 rue Charlot à Paris’.

The rectangular top with three-quarter gallery above a cavetto pediment and foliate entrelac frieze, with a pair of panelled cupboard doors below hung with ribbon tied floral swags, centred by ‘shishiai togidashi maki-e’ lacquer panels depicting blossoming Chrysanthemum, butterflies and Swallows against a textured tree-bark ground, within a re-entrant ‘nashiji’ decorated surround, opening to an interior fitted with two adjustable shelves, flanked by fluted uprights, the base with a corresponding pair of panel mounted cupboard doors above an acanthus cast foliate apron mount, raised on toupee feet.

France, Circa 1880.
The lacquer Japan, late 18th / early 19th Century.

Object History

This rare cabinet by Paul Sormani harmoniously blends a refined yet understated Louis XVI style design with opulent 18th century Japanese lacquer panels. For a comparable example by Sormani, see C. Payne, ‘Paris Furniture: The Luxury Market of the 19th Century’, 2018, p. 88.

Object Literature

C. Payne, European Furniture of the 19th Century, 2013, Suffolk, pp.’s 44-5.
C. Mestdagh, L’Ameublement d’art Francais, 1850-1900, 2010, Paris, pp.’s 296-299.

Object Details