A Florentine Renaissance style parcel-gilt and polychrome-decorated cassone

CIRCA 1870

Details

A Florentine Renaissance style parcel-gilt and polychrome-decorated cassone
Circa 1870
The rectangular hinged lid with raised scale and acanthus-carved centre and stipple designed edge, above panelled sides, the front painted with a scene depicting a jousting tournament, the ends with a mounted knight and standard bearer, the angles carved with scrolled foliage and a winged cartouche, on gadrooned base and hairy claw feet, the interior with gilt embossed foliate design lining
46½in. (118cm.) high; 78in. (198cm.) wide; 26¾in. (68cm.) deep

Provenance

Purchased Sotheby Parke Bernet, Los Angeles, 5 November 1979, lot 582.

Lot Essay

The present lot relates closely to other known examples of parcel-gilt and polychrome-decorated cassoni: one, by the Florentine ebenista Antonio Ponziani, with panels painted by Antonio Ungarelli, was shown at the Esposizione nazionale di Firenze in 1861. It was bought by Vittorio Emanuale II for the Palazzo Pitti, where it remains today in the Galleria d'Arte Moderna; another example, with very similar painted end panels, was purchased in Florence in 1876 and is in the collection at Knole, England (see S. Chiarugi, Botteghe di Mobilieri in Toscana, Florence, 1994, vol. I, pp. 383-6, 391, pl. 503-506).

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