CIRCA 1810

The distinctive form of this chair, with its attenuated swan-form back and monopodia supports, relates it to the work of the celebrated designer Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778). A passionate champion of classical Roman architecture, Piranesi published a number of striking designs for furniture, often incorporating antique elements such as monopodia and other animal elements, for instance a commode incorporating horses and mask-headed monpodia and an elaborate side table with winged monopodia supports, both appearing in his Diverse maniere d' adornare i cammini ed ogni altra parte degli edifici of 1769. A pair of chairs of this model from a private New York collection was sold Sotheby's New York, 22 May 1997, lot 268 ($96,000). Another chair of this model in a private collection in Naples is illustrated in G. Morazzoni, Il Mobile Neoclassico Italiano, Milan, 1955, fig. CCLIII.