Lot Essay
The scrolling anthemion mounts found on the offered lot are stylistically closely related to carved designs on a settee executed by Ivan Iossifovitch Bauman (active 1815-1824) after designs by Karl Ivanovitch (Carolo) Rossi (1775-1849), now in the collection of the State Hermitage Museum (inventory no. 753), St. Petersburg.
Born in Naples, Carlo Rossi came to Russia with the Italian architect Vincenzo Brenna who was responsible for many of the early interiors at Pavlovsk Palace, Rossi worked under Brenna initially, but then set off on his own in the Moscow area, rebuilding the Putyevoi Palace at Tver, where he designed his first furniture. By 1814 he had returned to St. Petersburg to work on Pavlovsk Palace, and in 1816 he was appointed court architect. Rossi also designed interiors for the Anitchkov, Yelagin, and Winter Palaces, for which he designed furniture incorporating a distinct vocabulary of ornament similar to that on the offered lot, either in giltwood or parcel-gilt against a natural wood ground (see A. Chenevière, Russian Furniture, The Golden Age 1780-1840, 1988, pp.201-207).
Born in Naples, Carlo Rossi came to Russia with the Italian architect Vincenzo Brenna who was responsible for many of the early interiors at Pavlovsk Palace, Rossi worked under Brenna initially, but then set off on his own in the Moscow area, rebuilding the Putyevoi Palace at Tver, where he designed his first furniture. By 1814 he had returned to St. Petersburg to work on Pavlovsk Palace, and in 1816 he was appointed court architect. Rossi also designed interiors for the Anitchkov, Yelagin, and Winter Palaces, for which he designed furniture incorporating a distinct vocabulary of ornament similar to that on the offered lot, either in giltwood or parcel-gilt against a natural wood ground (see A. Chenevière, Russian Furniture, The Golden Age 1780-1840, 1988, pp.201-207).