Albert Sorlin-Dorigny

In December 1896 the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon bought a lot of Cypriot figurines and vases from Albert Sorlin-Dorigny, who lived in Pera, Constantinople. The museum's inventory entry E 366 records them as 17 limestone statuettes, 30 terracotta statuettes and 3 vases, one broken, "de Chypre", bought from "M. Al. Sorlin-Dorigny" in the rue Asmali Mesjdid. The pieces were later numbered E 366-1 to -43. M. Yon counts 15 Cypriot limestone statuettes, 21 or 22 terracottas and three archaic vases, and notes that E 366-42 is not Cypriot¹. The lot includes chariot groups (E 366-23, -29, -30) and Bichrome III cups (E 366-33, -35)¹. Many pieces carry an old "coll. Lambert" label, which Yon thinks was added inside the museum after 1896¹. No find-spots or earlier owners are recorded for the lot.

The printed member lists of the Société nationale des antiquaires de France give him as a corresponding member at Constantinople from 1 June 1881. His street number is 17 in those lists and 15 in the Lyon inventory³. In 1893 the Society heard his letter about a votive relief to Apollo Grateen that he had offered to the Louvre, and the Louvre's curators described his generosity as "so often exercised in favour of our collections"². The Louvre's list of acquisitions for 1900 names him as donor of pieces from Cyzicus, Delos and Hissarlik³. His birth and death dates are not recorded.