A ceremonial carriage: Design for the theatre

Details

Bibiena Family, early 18th Century
A ceremonial carriage: Design for the theatre
black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash, with perspectival indications
9 3/8 x 9 5/8 in. (23.7 x 24.3 cm.)

Provenance

With Joanna Booth.
L. Houthakker, his mark (not in Lugt).
With Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox, 1991, no. 3.

Literature

P. Fuhring, Design into Art: drawings for architecture and ornament, the Lodewijk Houthakker Collection, London, 1989, I, p. 437, no. 712

Special notice

This lot is offered without reserve. No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

This elaborate carriage or wheelchair was probably intended to be used on the stage. A drawing from the Anthony Blunt Collection (Courtauld Institute, London, Blunt 95), also attributed to the Bibiena family, shows the design for a coulisse with an almost identical wheel chair seen from behind. As part of a stage set both chairs would have been painted entirely in trompe l'oeil.

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