Lot Essay
The delicately carved foliate panels of these elegant corner consoles relate them to the work of the celebrated Turinese cabinet-maker Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo, who was appointed sculptor to the Royal court of Turin in 1787 by Vittorio Amedeo III. In particular the distinctive arrangement of the foliate carving of the uprights relates to the framing of a mirror by Bonzanigo's circle in the apartments of the Duchess of Aosta in the Palazzo Reale in Turin (see G. Ferraris, Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo, 1991, pp. 76-7). A console with similar scrolling supports, in a private collection in Turin, is illustrated in Mostra del Barocco Piemontese, exh. cat., Turin, 1963, cat. 78. A pair of Genoese consoles of similar compact form was sold from the collection of the late Giuseppe Rossi, Sotheby's London, 10 March 1999, lot 195 (47,700 pounds).