COMMODE "À LA GRECQUE" Transitional style, Paris around 1870, signed on plaque Paul Sormani - 10 rue Charlot Paris (Paul Sormani, 1817-1877). After a model by Georg Haupt. Rosewood, amaranth and partly green tinted woods, friezed and finely inlaid with flowers in a curved lattice pattern in reserves. Rectangular body with protruding corner mouldings on a wavy cut-out frame with curved legs. Slightly protruding front in the centre with three drawers over three doors. Richly gilded bronze fittings in the form of meshes, laurel garlands, meander bands, rosettes and decorative friezes. Profiled "Brèche Arlequino" marble top. 1 key. 92 × 143.5 × 58 cm. Good restored condition, few traces of use. Provenance: Private property in western Switzerland. Sormani modelled this piece on a chest of drawers by Georg Haupt (inv. no. 1108:1 to 3-1882), which is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. At first glance, the chest of drawers made by Haupt in 1779 combines the neoclassical elements of French furniture making. The symmetrical overall shape, the intricate marquetry and the gilded bronze fittings look as if they came from Parisian workshops. However, Haupt actually made the chest of drawers in Stockholm for the King of Sweden. Our chest of drawers faithfully follows the original in form and decoration, but dispenses with the figurative veneer pattern.