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Pierre-Philippe Thomire

Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751–1843) a French sculptor, was the most prominent bronzier, or producer of ornamental patinated and gilt-bronze objects and furniture mounts of the First French Empire. His fashionable Neo-Classical and Empire style furnishing bronzes, established the highest standard in refined finish. Before the French Revolution Thomire produced a set of gilt-bronze wall-lights delivered for Marie-Antoinette’s card-room, her Salon des Jeux at Compiègne

In 1783–84 he received his first notable commission, casting and finishing the gilt-bronze handles modeled by Boizot for a pair of Sèvres porcelain vases, today divided between the Musée du Louvre and Palazzo Pitti. Under the Empire, Thomire purchased the fashionable premises of the marchand-mercier Martin-Éloi Lignereux, for whom he had provided furnishing bronzes in rue Taitbout, Paris. He received a Gold medal at the 1806 Exposition Publique des Produits de l’Industrie. Notably, the first time a bronzier was permitted among the exhibiters. He was also responsible for the ormolu mounts on a secretary desk by Guillaume Beneman, delivered for the King’s cabinet intérieure at Compiègne, in1787.
In a notable commission for Count Nicolay Demidoff in 1819, Thomire produced finely-made figures of Fame with doubled trumpets to serve as handles for the massive malachite-veneered vase now at the Metropoolitan Museum. Thomire retired from his firm in 1823.

His most prestigious commission was the execution of the cradle for the King of Rome.