Lot Essay
This pier mirror bears the only known label of the Delmarone & Cermenati partnership. While the identity of Delmarone remains unknown, the latter refers to either Bernard or Paul Cermenati, both Italian immigrants working in eastern Massachusetts in the early nineteenth century. Bernard Cermenati (ca. 1783-1818) advertised as early as August 28, 1807 in Newburyport as a carver, gilder and looking-glass and frame maker. After subsequently working in Salem, he is listed in the Boston directories in 1811 and from 1813 to 1818. Probably a relation of Bernard's, Paul Cermenati worked alone and with partners G. Monfrino and John Bernarda from 1805 to 1809 in Boston and Salem (Peter Benes, Old-Town and the Waterside (Newburyport, Massachusetts, 1986), pp.76-77, cats.56, 57, Betty Ring, "Check list of looking-glass and frame makers known by their labels," Antiques (May, 1981), pp.1180-1181 and David L. Barquist, American Tables and Looking Glasses (New Haven, 1992), pp.326-330). An almost identical mirror labeled by Kidder and Carter of Charlestown, Massachusetts is illustrated in Colonial Furniture, Silver & Decorations: The Collection of the Late Philip Flayderman (New York, 1930), pp.130-131, fig.404.