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The unusal suite of case furniture, comprising this lot, a pair of bedside tables and a pair of console tables, relate to a design by Domenico Moglia for a similar commode (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 Commoder Cornelius Vanderbuilt, 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 these lots.
A PAIR OF ITALIAN GILT BRONZE-MOUNTED WALNUT AND BURR-ELM COMMODES
PROBABLY LOMBARDY AND IN THE MANNER OF DOMENICO MOGLIA, CIRCA 1820
Details
A PAIR OF ITALIAN GILT BRONZE-MOUNTED WALNUT AND BURR-ELM COMMODES
PROBABLY LOMBARDY AND IN THE MANNER OF DOMENICO MOGLIA, CIRCA 1820
En suite with the following two lots, each with rectangular grey marble top above a palmette and lappeted molding and frieze-drawer centered by two maidens and a child flanking an altar, above a panelled and recessable flap enclosing two deep walnut-lined drawers, flanked by maiden herm-pilasters beneath putti emblematic of the Arts, the plinth on patinated bronze feet, the locking mechanism broken
37 in. (94 cm.) high, 50 in. (127 cm.) wide, 24 in. (61 cm.) deep (2)
PROBABLY LOMBARDY AND IN THE MANNER OF DOMENICO MOGLIA, CIRCA 1820
En suite with the following two lots, each with rectangular grey marble top above a palmette and lappeted molding and frieze-drawer centered by two maidens and a child flanking an altar, above a panelled and recessable flap enclosing two deep walnut-lined drawers, flanked by maiden herm-pilasters beneath putti emblematic of the Arts, the plinth on patinated bronze feet, the locking mechanism broken
37 in. (94 cm.) high, 50 in. (127 cm.) wide, 24 in. (61 cm.) deep (2)
Provenance
Mrs. James. A. Burden, New York.
Literature
W. Odom, A History of Italian Furniture, New York, 1967, p. 402, figs. 507 and 508.