A PAIR OF NORTH ITALIAN GILT BRONZE-MOUNTED WALNUT AND BURR-ELM BEDSIDE CABINETS
This lot is exempt from Sales Tax. Christie's int… Read more PROPERTY FROM THE C. RUXTON AND AUDREY B. LOVE COLLECTION (LOT 401)
A PAIR OF NORTH ITALIAN GILT BRONZE-MOUNTED WALNUT AND BURR-ELM BEDSIDE CABINETS

PROBABLY LOMBARDY AND IN THE MANNER OF DOMENICO MOGLIA, CIRCA 1820

Details
A PAIR OF NORTH ITALIAN GILT BRONZE-MOUNTED WALNUT AND BURR-ELM BEDSIDE CABINETS
PROBABLY LOMBARDY AND IN THE MANNER OF DOMENICO MOGLIA, CIRCA 1820
Each with a rectangular grey marble top above a lappeted molding and a frieze-drawer with putti flanking an altar, flanked by music-making putti, above a panelled door with lion-mask ring handles, enclosing one shelf, flanked by maiden's herm pilaster and on bronze paw feet, numbered 'no. 1' and 'no. 2' respectively, the underside of one marble top with deposit label, and numbered '14537'
30½ in. (78 cm.) high, 25 in. (51 cm.) wide, 25 in. (38 cm.) deep
Label to underside of marble inscribed 'LINCOLN SAFE DEPOSIT CO 45 TO 55 E 41ST NY ...' (2)
Provenance
Mrs. James A. Burden, New York.
Literature
W. Odom, A History of Italian Furniture, New York, 1967, p. 404, fig. 512.
Special notice
This lot is exempt from Sales Tax. Christie's interest in property consigned for sale. Christie's generally offers property consigned by others for sale at public auction. From time to time, lots are offered which Christie's International Plc or one of it's subsidiary companies owns in whole or in part. Each such lot is offered subject to a reserve. This is such a lot.

Lot Essay

This pair of bedside cabinets (together with a pair of commodes and a pair of side tables also from the Love Collection, sold Christie's New York, 20 October, 2004, lots 557 and 558) formed part of an unusual suite of case furniture which relate to a design by Domenico Moglia (see E. Colle, Il Mobile Impero in Italia, Milan, 1988, p. 276). The drawing incorporates the same infrequent use of a fall-front and reflects a very closely related use of herm figures above paw feet topped by an embellished top drawer.

Domenico Moglia was one of the most prolific furniture designers in Lombardy during the reign of Eugène de Beauharnais (1805 - 1818) and the reign of the Archduke Ranieri (1818 - 1848). Moglia, who taught at the Accademia di Brera from 1812 annually supplied designs for furniture until 1852. Works executed after his designs survive in the Palazzo Reale in Milan and the Palazzo Borromeo in Stresa, Isola Bella (Colle, ibid., pp. 263 and 292, respectively).

JAMES A. BURDEN
James A. Burden, steel magnate, and his wife Florence Adèle Sloane, a great-granddaughter of Commodor Cornelius Vanderbilt, built their Italian Renaissance-style New York residence at 7 East 91st Street in 1902 to the plans of Whitney Warren. They also built a 140 acre estate in Syosset in Long Island (today the Woodcrest Golf Club) to the plans of Willam Adams Delano, where in 1924, the Prince of Wales resided during his visit to New York and where Mrs. Burden frequently entertained Eleanore and Franklin Roosevelt. Sales at their mansion and with objects from their collections took place in 1938 and in 1980 - 82, but did not include this lot.

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