BY PAUL SORMANI, PARIS, AFTER THE MODEL BY NICOLAS PIERRE SEVERIN, LATE 19TH CENTURY

This bureau is an interpretation of the celebrated example by Nicolas Pierre Séverin, known as the bureau de l'abbé Terray which is now preserved in the musée du Louvre (inv. OA7805). The model was revived from the mid-19th century by the premier Parisian ébénistes and is recorded by Alfred Beurdeley and Henry Dasson. An example by Beurdeley sold Sotheby's, New York, 22 April 2010, lot 128 ($92,500). Later in the century the model was also made by Gervaise Durand, Antoine Krieger and, as here, Paul Sormani.