Paul Sormani - Pair Of Atheniennes

A fine pair of Louis XVI-style covered athénienne cassolettes, in vert de mer marble and finely chased gilt-bronze. The hemispherical bowls, encircled by an openwork interlacing frieze and surmounted by a cover with a pinecone finial, are flanked by female term figures playing trumpets. The whole rests on a tripod stand with foliate stems and curved uprights terminating in winged griffins seated on a shaped yellow marble plinth.      
Biography    
Paul Sormani, born in Italy in 1817, died in 1877. Initially specializing in the production of nécessaires, small fancy furniture, and objets d'art, he established his workshops at 114 rue du Temple in Paris in 1854. The Maison Sormani rapidly achieved great success and became highly favored by Parisian high society as well as the Imperial family itself. Empress Eugénie decorated her palaces and various residences in the Ancien Régime styles. She invariably called upon Sormani's fine creations. The Maison Sormani exhibited its works at all the major national and international exhibitions, such as the Exposition des Produits de l'Industrie of 1849 and the great Paris Expositions Universelles of 1855 and 1867, where Sormani was honored by the juries and won the highest awards for his "production revealing a quality of execution of the very first order." Following the 1867 Exposition Universelle, Sormani expanded and relocated to 10 rue Charlot, where his workshops rose to full prominence. Paul-Charles Sormani, Paul's son, born in 1848, worked alongside his father and, following the latter's death, continued the business with his mother under the firm name Veuve Paul Sormani et Fils in Paris. After the First World War, they entered into partnership with Thiébaux, and the firm relocated to 134 boulevard Haussmann, remaining there until 1934