Cabinet (Cabinet à deux-corps)

Stanley Mortimer (1853–1932), New York, by 1932 [1];

By inheritance to his wife, Elizabeth Livingston Hall Mortimer (1863-1944), New York, 1932-1944;

Purchased at their posthumous sale, Gothic and Renaissance Art…Furniture, Decorative Objects. Property from the Estate of the Late Stanley Mortimer, New York, Second and Final Part, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, December 2, 1944, lot 116, as Sculptured Walnut Cabinet à Deux Corps, by Joseph Brummer (1883–1947), New York, stock no. N6178, 1944-1947 [2];

Purchased at his posthumous sale, Classical and Medieval Stone Sculptures…Renaissance Furniture….Part III of the Art Collection Belonging to the Late Joseph Brummer, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, June 8, 1949, lot 345, as Henri II Carved Walnut Cabinet à Deux Corps, by the dealer Hagop Kevorkian (1872–1962), New York, 1949-1962 [3];

Probably purchased at his posthumous sale, Persian Art…Egyptian and Classical Art…Collected by the Late Hagop Kevorkian, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, December 15, 1962, lot 345, as Henri II Carved Walnut Cabinet Deux Corps, by Ruth Tescher Constantino (1892–1981), New York, 1962-ca. 1963 [4];

Her gift to her daughter, Helen Constantino Fioratti, ca. 1963-2025 [5];

Purchased from Fioratti by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2025.

NOTES:

[1] Stanley Mortimer was an attorney who also studied art in Paris. He was known especially as an accomplished polo player and as a founder of the Meadow Brook Club on Long Island. His wife, Elizabeth Livingston Hall Mortimer (1863-1944), was an aunt to Eleanor Roosevelt and was mentioned several times in Roosevelt’s newspaper column, My Day, including a column dated December 7, 1937: “…at five o’clock I am going up to have tea with my aunt, Mrs. Stanley Mortimer, who is just back from England. I always love seeing her, and my boys insist that my two Hall aunts have quite as much “go” as any Roosevelts! Aside from seeing her, however, the surroundings in which you drink tea are rather unique and delightful. I know of no house with more perfect early Italian paintings, tapestries and various kinds of decorations, including some really beautiful stained glass.” See “My Day Index: Mortimer, Elizabeth Livingston Hall, 1865-1944,” The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Digital Edition (2018), George Washington University at Mount Vernon, https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/index/person/erp-pn-elhmor.html .

[2] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Cloisters Library and Archive, Brummer Gallery Records, Armoires, Object inventory card number N6178.

[3] An annotated notation in a copy of the sales catalogue, Watson Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, reads: “H. Kevorkian.” Hagop Kevorkian was an Armenian dealer, collector and archaeologist who traded primarily in objects from a wide variety of geographies and time periods, especially Islamic and ancient art from the Near East.

[4] Constantino was an art dealer in New York whose gallery, Connoisseur Inc., counted many prominent private collectors and museums among its clients.

[5] Constantino gave the cabinet to her daughter, Helen Constantino Fioratti, when the latter took over her mother’s antique business ca. 1963. Email communication, Helen Fioratti to William Keyse Rudolph, Deputy Director, Curatorial Affairs, October 4, 2023.