Live Auction 11628THE OPULENT EYE:19TH CENTURY FURNITURE, SCULPTURE, WORKS OF ART, CERAMIC & CARPETS
A LARGE FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED MAHOGANY BUREAU PLAT
Lot 246 PROPERTY FROM AN ESTATE, WASHINGTON, D.C.

A LARGE FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED MAHOGANY BUREAU PLAT

AFTER THE MODEL BY GUILLAUME BENEMAN, BY PAUL SORMANI, PARIS, THIRD QUARTER 19TH CENTURY

Closed19 April 2016

Price Realised

USD 50,000

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A LARGE FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED MAHOGANY BUREAU PLAT
AFTER THE MODEL BY GUILLAUME BENEMAN, BY PAUL SORMANI, PARIS, THIRD QUARTER 19TH CENTURY
The top with later inset black leather writing surface over three frieze drawers with Vitruvian scroll or lions masks suspending foliate swags, the reverse with false drawers, on eight square tapering legs, the central drawer lock signed P SORMANI PARIS/10, rue Charlot, the underside twice stamped SORMANI PARIS
30 ½ in. (77.5 cm.) high, 70 ¼ in. (178.5 cm.) wide, 34 ¼ in. (87 cm.) deep

Specialist note

The present bureau plat, exquisitely constructed by Paul Sormani, is a replica of the model created by Guillaume Benneman circa 1787 for Louis XVI’s library at Fontainebleau. The original, designed with four legs, was then placed in the cabinet de travail at the Tuileries where it was used by Napoleon, Queen Marie-Amélie and the Empress Eugénie. It is today in the collections of the Louvre (OA 5329).