VENICE, ONE MID-18TH CENTURY AND ONE LATE 19TH CENTURY, DECORATION OF BOTH LATE 19TH CENTURY

Details

A MATCHED PAIR OF NORTH ITALIAN RED AND GILT-LACQUER COMMODES
VENICE, ONE MID-18TH CENTURY AND ONE LATE 19TH CENTURY, DECORATION OF BOTH LATE 19TH CENTURY
Each of bombé tapering form and painted overall with Chinoiserie decoration, the shaped rectangular top with decorated with figures amid pavillions and riding in rickshaws within a fretwork border, above three tapering drawers and sides similarly decorated, over a waved apron, on short cabriole legs, tops of slightly differing length, minor variation to decoration to divide above top drawer
35½ in. (90 cm.) high, 49½ in. (126 cm.) wide (one), 47 in. (119 cm.) wide, 24 in. (61 cm.) deep (the other) (2)

Provenance

By repute purchased by the present owner's grandfather in Venice in the 1870s or 1880s.

Lot Essay

The unusal shape of this matched pair of commodes is related to polychrome-decorated commodes such as the example in the Ca' Rezzonico, Venice (S. Colombo, L'Arte del Legno e del Mobile in Italia, Turin, 1981, fig. 456), which generally employ a much richer surface carving. The restrained carving in combination with the exuberant shape of these commodes is reminiscent of commodes from the neighboring Lombardy, where the hipped angles are found with plain walnut-veneered or marquetry surfaces (Colombo, ibid., fig. 473), but usually with differing legs.

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