MID-18TH CENTURY

This magnificent Venetian mirror, richly decorated with mother-of-pearl, typifies the fascination for the alluring products of the Orient, made available through Venice's extensive trade contacts with the East. Furniture embellished in this precious technique became a speciality of Venice, which is demonstrated by the documented oeuvre of various artists. The celebrated architect and carver Domenico Rossetti (1650-1736), for instance, executed 'Una stanza nella casa di Angelo Nicolosi cancelliere grande, con diversi lavori alla chinese, vernici, intagli e rimessi di madreperla: opera mirabile per la rarità dell'invenzione e della esecuzione' (Zannandreis, 1891, p. 349). Venetian workshops producing mirrors of this style, decorated them either in black or red lacca simulating oriental lacquer, but also in faux marble and real or simulated tortoiseshell, often with contrasting giltwood trailing motifs, which also feature on the present examples. This giltwood decoration is visible on a related mirror in the Museo Civico di Storia e Arte, in Trieste (illustrated in C. Alberici, Il Mobile Veneto, Milan, 1980, p. 159, ill. 218). Another mirror in the National Gallery in Prague, with closely related delicate japanned decoration in combination with mother-of-pearl inlay, is illustrated in H. Huth, Lacquer of the West, Chicago, 1971, figs. 103-4. A further closely related pair of mirrors was sold, Christie's, London, 21 June 2000, lot 150 (£175,000), and another is illustrated in C. Santini, Mille Mobili Veneti, 2002, Vol. III, pp. 245-6, ill. 423.