DESIGNED BY EDOUARD LIEVRE, ATTRIBUTED TO PAUL SORMANI, CIRCA 1870

This cabinet, ‘Crédence en noyer enrichie de bronzes’, is Lièvre’s defining piece in the Renaissance style. Its importance is underlined by it being retained in Lièvre’s own collection until the sale of his personal property at Hôtel Drouot in March 1887 following his death. It recalls Franco-Flemish cabinets-on-stands of the early 17th century such as the ‘Marie de Medici cabinet’ in the V & A (W.64:1 to 3-1977), which Lièvre might have seen at Mentmore Towers, Buckinghamshire, where it was from circa 1855 in the collection of Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild (d. 1874).

Part of Lièvre’s genius was his flair for combining historically accurate ornament to create new designs. As evidenced by the present cabinet, his skill was in maintaining the correct proportions and symmetry. With subtle hints and acknowledgement to past masters, Lièvre creates something both quite new, yet in homage to the antique. This historicism is evident to the crédence not just in its form, but also in the use of a statuette of Antinous, a reduction after the Belvedere Hermes. A favourite of the Emperor Hadrian, the antique original takes a prominent position in the Belvedere of the Museo Pio-Clementino (Vatican Collection). The portrait plaques depict Charles VII and his favourite mistress Agnès Sorel, chosen to represent love.

The cabinetry can be attributed to the Parisian ébéniste Paul Sormani owing to the superb quality of its construction, but more specifically with reference to a smaller, and albeit overall less accomplished, cabinet signed by Sormani and fronted with an identical single portrait plaque of Agnès Sorel (A Private Collection Volume I, Sotheby’s, New York, 26 October 2006, lot 187).

Also compare a mirror ‘Psyché de Sarah Bernhardt’ (Connaissance des Arts, N° 228, Paris, 2004, S. 28 ff. p. 4-5) and a cabinet-on- stand with identical figure of Antinous (opposed by Diana) sold Sotheby’s, New York, 16 November 2011, lot 239.