TURIN, CIRCA 1787

Details

A NORTH ITALIAN GILTWOOD CONSOLE TABLE
TURIN, CIRCA 1787
The rounded rectangular brèche violette marble top with eared corners, above a leaf-tip-carved cornice and a pierced frieze elaborately carved with interspersed anthemion and foliate scrolls and centred by a winged female mask within scrolling foliage, on turned tapering and stop-fluted legs filled with husk trails, headed by Ionic capitals and terminating in leaf-wrapped pine-cone toupie feet, the underside incised '1787', with remains of a blue-bordered paper label
35½ in. (90 cm.) high; 74¾ in. (190 cm.) wide; 20¾ in. (53 cm.) deep

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Sale room notice

This lot should be starred in the catalogue, indicating that VAT is payable at 5 on hammer price and at 17.5 on the buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

The finely detailed and jewel-like carving of this elegant console is characteristic for the circle of carvers and cabinet-makers in Turin patronized by the royal family. The most celebrated of these was Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo (1745-1820), who worked for the Court from 1773, however, other skilled craftsmen and intagliatori such as Francesco Tanadei, Giuseppe Marchino, Francesco Novaro and Francesco Bolgiè, working around Bonzanigo, were also commissioned to provide work for Stupinigi, Moncalieri, Venaria, Rivoli and most of all for the Palazzo Reale in the centre of Turin. The design of this console table furthermore relates to the work of the Rome-trained architect Jean Demosthene Dugourc (d.1825), who was patronised by the Duc d'Orleans from 1780 and was the author of a suite of 'Arabesques' or Roman ornament issued in 1782. A pioneer of the Etruscan or Pompeain style Dugourc was appointed 'Dessinateur' of Louis XVI's Garde-Meuble de la Couronne and executed designs for Fontainebleau.

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