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Lot Essay
THE PONIATOWSKI TABLE
A rare survival of late Renaissance Italian mother-of-pearl and ivory intarsia decoration, this superb centre table belongs to a very small group of tables and cabinets most probably executed in Venice circa 1600. The exquisite and extremely fine inlaid decoration, outstanding craftsmanship and superlative provenance make this an example of great importance.
AN ESSAY BY ALVAR GONZáLEZ-PALACIOS
The inlaid tabletop features an outer surround with hunting scenes, two filleted bands separated by an ivory border and a further surround featuring vases, fantastical creatures and sirens flanking roundels. The central field is divided with an elaborate interlaced pattern of ivory bands enclosing reserves featuring vases, allegorical female nudes and hunting motifs.
The background is filled with tendrils and flowers in mother-of-pearl. The table is centred by the Poniatowski coat-of-arms surmounted by a royal crown. The square trestle supports, which are joined by a stretcher, are also decorated with floral inlay of mother-of-pearl punctuated with figured roundels and small vases.
STYLISTIC ANALYSIS
This table is one of a group of pieces of furniture dating to the early seventeenth century which includes a number of tables and several cabinets. Some of these bear the same punchmark which is burnt into the wood and contains the letters CCC. In addition their inlaid decoration includes a coat-of-arms, sometimes surmounted with a cardinal's hat or a coronet, whose heraldic device is a checkered eagle. It has been suggested that the initials are those of Carlo, Cardinal Conti (1556-1615) a member of an illustrious Roman family (with connections to three popes from the Medieval period). Conti was raised to a Cardinal in 1604 and two of the pieces of furniture bear the dates 1603 and 1604, which would seem to validate the letters in the punchmark as well as the heraldic device (1).
All of these pieces of furniture have the same unmistakeable decoration and form a stylistically coherent group precisely because of the way they are inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl on a rare kind of light palisander. A number of stylistic similarities point to their being made in Venice at some point in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century. Although there are a few classicising elements, the pattern of interlaced tendrils and flowers is clearly oriental in its derivation, which fits absolutely with Venetian taste of that period. The same superabundance of decorative detail is found in metalwork, textiles, lacquerware and even in some paintings by the great Venetian Renaissance artists, as well as in book binding, so that in some cases it is not always easy to distinguish between objects made in Venice and those made in the Islamic east. In fact the close commercial, political and artistic ties between the old Venetian republic and the countries of the Ottoman Empire are well known (2).
The border of the tabletop shows men on horses hunting with dogs and seems to have drawn its inspiration from a Flemish tapestry (and from the many north European engravings well known in Italy at that time) but it also contains dense floral decoration. This latter element can be traced to the old tradition of Italian inlay, of a type called alla certosina which is nowadays universally recognised as being Arabic in origin. The dark bands bordered in ivory which mark out the dominant pattern of the tabletop recall Persian and Turkish book bindings(3). The use of mother of pearl, which is also oriental in origin, had long been popular in Venice (4). Furniture of ebony and ivory was made in the city although it is only known to us today from surviving documents (5).
THE PROVENANCE
This table belonged to Dr Ludwig Mond (1839-1909), the well known German chemist who became a British citizen and was a wealthy industrialist and a great benefactor and collector. He was advised and guided in his collecting interests by the expertise of the famous German art historian Jean-Paul Richter (1847-1937) and by Henriette Hertz (1846-1913), who lived in Rome where Mond spent a lot of his time and where he acquired the Palazzo Zuccaro in via Gregoriana, today the Biblioteca Hertziana. Richter lived in London and became best known as an expert on Leonardo and as an amateur art dealer: it was he who edited the catalogue of the Mond collection in 1910. Today a substantial number of pictures that belonged to Mond are in the National Gallery in London including masterpieces by Giovanni Bellini, Botticelli, Cima, Titian and Mantegna as well as a large Crucifixion by Raphael. We do not know when Ludwig Mond acquired this table, but it belonged to him before passing to his great nephew Julian Edward Alfred Mond, third Baron Melchett (1925-1973), and first Chairman of the nationalised British Steel Corporation.
As has been mentioned, the coat-of-arms shown in the centre of the table is that of the Polish Poniatowski family. It features a red bull standing on a green sward on a silver field and is known to be that of the Torelli family from Montechiarugolo (Parma) a member of whose family settled in Poland in the sixteenth century. The last King of Poland, Stanislaus II Augustus Poniatowski (1732-1798) was a descendant of the Torelli family and died without issue in 1798. His nephew, Prince Stanislaus Poniatowski (1754-1833) moved to Italy, initially to Rome and then to Florence, where he enjoyed the favour of the Grand Duke of Tuscany and was made Prince of Monterotondo. His sons remained in Florence and both enjoyed the princely title. Giuseppe Poniatowski (1814-1873) owned a palace in the Porta al Prato area of the city which was modernised and redecorated for him by Giuseppe Poggi. The Poniatowski Guadagni palace still exists and the same coat of arms can be seen on the façade of the palace as appears on the present table (6).
It is possible that this table stood at one time in the palace. In the nineteenth century there was a renewed interest and fashion for floral inlays of the type originally made between the Renaissance and Baroque periods which reached a peak of perfection in the inlay work carried out by the Florentine cabinetmakers Luigi and Angiolo Falcini. These two craftsmen repaired several pieces of furniture for Prince Demidoff around 1840 (7). It is not impossible, given the high quality of the workmanship of the coat of arms that has been added to the table, that this was carried out by the Falcinis or by another cabinetmaker working in Florence around the middle of the nineteenth century.
Notes
1. A. Gonzalez-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto, Milan, 1986, pp.307-309, figs.693-704; A. Gonzalez-Palacios, Il Gusto dei Principi, Milan, 1993, pp.335-336, figs.584-592, with a bibliography for Cardinal Conti and other pieces of furniture of this kind.
2 P. Molmenti, La storia di Venezia nella vita privata, Bergamo, 1925, (6th edition), second part of Ch. VI; J. Raby, Venice, Dürer and the Oriental Mode, London, 1982; Venise et l'Orient, exhibition catalogue, Paris and New York, 2006.
3 Molmenti, op. cit., p.173; H. Huth, Lacquer of the West, Chicago, 1971, pl. 1; Venise et l'Orient, op. cit., pp, 26,240,241,242; O mundo da laca, exhibition catalogue, Lisbon, Gulbenkian Museum, 2001, pp.159, 161, 163.
4 In recent years further examples of this type of furniture have come to light, amongst them a tabletop similar in both style and design to this one (Sotheby's, London, 19 May 1995, lot 55); both tables are clearly from the same workshop and by the same hand as another example illustrated by me in Il Gusto dei Principi, cit. fig 591.
5 M. Sermidi, Le collezioni Gonzaga. Il carteggio tra Venezia e Mantova (1588-1612), Cinisello Balsamo, 2003, pp.323, 488 (1602-1610); from the same sources we know that both ebony and fico d'India, or palisander/kingwood were traded in Venice: p. 245 (1599).
6 For further information on the Poniatowski family and Italy see A. Busiri Vici, I Poniatowski e Roma, Florence, 1972. For the palace in Florence see G. Trotta, Palazzo Poniatowski Guadagni, Florence, 1990.
October 2010
TRANSLATED BY EMMA-LOUISE BASSETT
THE CASTLE DROGO AND DUKE OF URBINO RELATED TABLES
Several related examples have come to light in recent years, among which a pair of tables (one with later base) at Castle Drogo, Drewsteignton, Devon, recently sold to the National Trust and reproduced here (in part). The latter pair was in the past thought to have been manufactured by German gunstock makers, such few surviving examples of ivory and mother-of-pearl inlaid centre tables having traditionally been called South German until the more recent Venetian attribution.
A further closely related and arguably most celebrated example to have been sold at auction is the centre table executed circa 1596-7 for the Duke of Urbino Francesco Maria II della Rovere (1549-1631), attributed to Mastro Giorgio Tedesco and Giulio Lipi and sold from 'Treasures Aristocratic Heirlooms', Sotheby's, London, 6 July 2010, lot 4 (£937,250 with premium).
A rare survival of late Renaissance Italian mother-of-pearl and ivory intarsia decoration, this superb centre table belongs to a very small group of tables and cabinets most probably executed in Venice circa 1600. The exquisite and extremely fine inlaid decoration, outstanding craftsmanship and superlative provenance make this an example of great importance.
AN ESSAY BY ALVAR GONZáLEZ-PALACIOS
The inlaid tabletop features an outer surround with hunting scenes, two filleted bands separated by an ivory border and a further surround featuring vases, fantastical creatures and sirens flanking roundels. The central field is divided with an elaborate interlaced pattern of ivory bands enclosing reserves featuring vases, allegorical female nudes and hunting motifs.
The background is filled with tendrils and flowers in mother-of-pearl. The table is centred by the Poniatowski coat-of-arms surmounted by a royal crown. The square trestle supports, which are joined by a stretcher, are also decorated with floral inlay of mother-of-pearl punctuated with figured roundels and small vases.
STYLISTIC ANALYSIS
This table is one of a group of pieces of furniture dating to the early seventeenth century which includes a number of tables and several cabinets. Some of these bear the same punchmark which is burnt into the wood and contains the letters CCC. In addition their inlaid decoration includes a coat-of-arms, sometimes surmounted with a cardinal's hat or a coronet, whose heraldic device is a checkered eagle. It has been suggested that the initials are those of Carlo, Cardinal Conti (1556-1615) a member of an illustrious Roman family (with connections to three popes from the Medieval period). Conti was raised to a Cardinal in 1604 and two of the pieces of furniture bear the dates 1603 and 1604, which would seem to validate the letters in the punchmark as well as the heraldic device (1).
All of these pieces of furniture have the same unmistakeable decoration and form a stylistically coherent group precisely because of the way they are inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl on a rare kind of light palisander. A number of stylistic similarities point to their being made in Venice at some point in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century. Although there are a few classicising elements, the pattern of interlaced tendrils and flowers is clearly oriental in its derivation, which fits absolutely with Venetian taste of that period. The same superabundance of decorative detail is found in metalwork, textiles, lacquerware and even in some paintings by the great Venetian Renaissance artists, as well as in book binding, so that in some cases it is not always easy to distinguish between objects made in Venice and those made in the Islamic east. In fact the close commercial, political and artistic ties between the old Venetian republic and the countries of the Ottoman Empire are well known (2).
The border of the tabletop shows men on horses hunting with dogs and seems to have drawn its inspiration from a Flemish tapestry (and from the many north European engravings well known in Italy at that time) but it also contains dense floral decoration. This latter element can be traced to the old tradition of Italian inlay, of a type called alla certosina which is nowadays universally recognised as being Arabic in origin. The dark bands bordered in ivory which mark out the dominant pattern of the tabletop recall Persian and Turkish book bindings(3). The use of mother of pearl, which is also oriental in origin, had long been popular in Venice (4). Furniture of ebony and ivory was made in the city although it is only known to us today from surviving documents (5).
THE PROVENANCE
This table belonged to Dr Ludwig Mond (1839-1909), the well known German chemist who became a British citizen and was a wealthy industrialist and a great benefactor and collector. He was advised and guided in his collecting interests by the expertise of the famous German art historian Jean-Paul Richter (1847-1937) and by Henriette Hertz (1846-1913), who lived in Rome where Mond spent a lot of his time and where he acquired the Palazzo Zuccaro in via Gregoriana, today the Biblioteca Hertziana. Richter lived in London and became best known as an expert on Leonardo and as an amateur art dealer: it was he who edited the catalogue of the Mond collection in 1910. Today a substantial number of pictures that belonged to Mond are in the National Gallery in London including masterpieces by Giovanni Bellini, Botticelli, Cima, Titian and Mantegna as well as a large Crucifixion by Raphael. We do not know when Ludwig Mond acquired this table, but it belonged to him before passing to his great nephew Julian Edward Alfred Mond, third Baron Melchett (1925-1973), and first Chairman of the nationalised British Steel Corporation.
As has been mentioned, the coat-of-arms shown in the centre of the table is that of the Polish Poniatowski family. It features a red bull standing on a green sward on a silver field and is known to be that of the Torelli family from Montechiarugolo (Parma) a member of whose family settled in Poland in the sixteenth century. The last King of Poland, Stanislaus II Augustus Poniatowski (1732-1798) was a descendant of the Torelli family and died without issue in 1798. His nephew, Prince Stanislaus Poniatowski (1754-1833) moved to Italy, initially to Rome and then to Florence, where he enjoyed the favour of the Grand Duke of Tuscany and was made Prince of Monterotondo. His sons remained in Florence and both enjoyed the princely title. Giuseppe Poniatowski (1814-1873) owned a palace in the Porta al Prato area of the city which was modernised and redecorated for him by Giuseppe Poggi. The Poniatowski Guadagni palace still exists and the same coat of arms can be seen on the façade of the palace as appears on the present table (6).
It is possible that this table stood at one time in the palace. In the nineteenth century there was a renewed interest and fashion for floral inlays of the type originally made between the Renaissance and Baroque periods which reached a peak of perfection in the inlay work carried out by the Florentine cabinetmakers Luigi and Angiolo Falcini. These two craftsmen repaired several pieces of furniture for Prince Demidoff around 1840 (7). It is not impossible, given the high quality of the workmanship of the coat of arms that has been added to the table, that this was carried out by the Falcinis or by another cabinetmaker working in Florence around the middle of the nineteenth century.
Notes
1. A. Gonzalez-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto, Milan, 1986, pp.307-309, figs.693-704; A. Gonzalez-Palacios, Il Gusto dei Principi, Milan, 1993, pp.335-336, figs.584-592, with a bibliography for Cardinal Conti and other pieces of furniture of this kind.
2 P. Molmenti, La storia di Venezia nella vita privata, Bergamo, 1925, (6th edition), second part of Ch. VI; J. Raby, Venice, Dürer and the Oriental Mode, London, 1982; Venise et l'Orient, exhibition catalogue, Paris and New York, 2006.
3 Molmenti, op. cit., p.173; H. Huth, Lacquer of the West, Chicago, 1971, pl. 1; Venise et l'Orient, op. cit., pp, 26,240,241,242; O mundo da laca, exhibition catalogue, Lisbon, Gulbenkian Museum, 2001, pp.159, 161, 163.
4 In recent years further examples of this type of furniture have come to light, amongst them a tabletop similar in both style and design to this one (Sotheby's, London, 19 May 1995, lot 55); both tables are clearly from the same workshop and by the same hand as another example illustrated by me in Il Gusto dei Principi, cit. fig 591.
5 M. Sermidi, Le collezioni Gonzaga. Il carteggio tra Venezia e Mantova (1588-1612), Cinisello Balsamo, 2003, pp.323, 488 (1602-1610); from the same sources we know that both ebony and fico d'India, or palisander/kingwood were traded in Venice: p. 245 (1599).
6 For further information on the Poniatowski family and Italy see A. Busiri Vici, I Poniatowski e Roma, Florence, 1972. For the palace in Florence see G. Trotta, Palazzo Poniatowski Guadagni, Florence, 1990.
October 2010
TRANSLATED BY EMMA-LOUISE BASSETT
THE CASTLE DROGO AND DUKE OF URBINO RELATED TABLES
Several related examples have come to light in recent years, among which a pair of tables (one with later base) at Castle Drogo, Drewsteignton, Devon, recently sold to the National Trust and reproduced here (in part). The latter pair was in the past thought to have been manufactured by German gunstock makers, such few surviving examples of ivory and mother-of-pearl inlaid centre tables having traditionally been called South German until the more recent Venetian attribution.
A further closely related and arguably most celebrated example to have been sold at auction is the centre table executed circa 1596-7 for the Duke of Urbino Francesco Maria II della Rovere (1549-1631), attributed to Mastro Giorgio Tedesco and Giulio Lipi and sold from 'Treasures Aristocratic Heirlooms', Sotheby's, London, 6 July 2010, lot 4 (£937,250 with premium).