A FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED AMARANTH, KINGWOOD, BOIS SATINÉ, BURR-AMBOYNA AND MARQUETRY COMMODE

This modestly-decorated commode is based on the original by ébéniste Georg Haupt (1741-1784), who became cabinetmaker to the King of Sweden in 1769. It now resides in the Jones Collection in The Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. 1108:1 to 3-1882), formerly The South Kensington Museum, funded in 1852. As exhibition of royal furnishings became commonplace, 'makers were encouraged by the South Kensington Museum to copy furniture in the collection' and it is unsurprising that a leading Parisian ébéniste such as Paul Sormani sought to replicate a number of the museum's holdings (C. Payne, Paris Furniture: The Luxury Market of the 19th Century, 2018, p. 218). Under the direction of Sormani's widow the firm also copied an ambitious cylinder bureau in marquetry and parquetry also in the Jones Collection (inv. 1043:1 to 38-1882), which the firm subsequently exhibited at the Paris Exposition universelle of 1900 and supplied an additional copy for the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park, New York.