LATE 18TH EARLY 19TH CENTURY, IN THE MANNER OF GUISEPPE MAGGIOLINI

A commode with nearly identical inlay (to the frieze-drawer, uprights, legs, angle-brackets, framing of the main panels) and same concept of construction, in the Palazzo Reale, Turin, is described as having been made in circa 1800 by Giuseppe Maggiolini (1738-1814) by G. Morazzoni in 1955 (Il Mobile Neoclassico Italiano, Milano, 1955, plate CCCXIXa), while in his Il Mobile Intarsiato di Giuseppe Maggiolini, Milan, 1957, plate LXXb, however, the same commode is two years later attributed to an imitator of Maggiolini. Commodes, such as this lot and that in the Palazzo Reale are in fact, as G. Beretti points out in his Giuseppe e Carlo Francesco Maggiolini, Milano, 1994, not of inferior quality, but distinguish themselves more by their decoration. While the decorative scheme remains that of Giocondo Albertolli adapted by Giuseppe Levati for furniture designs, its execution is, however, as Beretti says perhaps a little less balanced amongst Maggiolini's followers.

A commode with similar ornament was sold anonymously, Sotheby's London, 27 May 1988, lot 221.

For a short biography on Maggiolini please see lot 32.