BY PIETRO BAZZANTI, FLORENCE, LATE 19TH CENTURY

The hugely successful Florentine studio of Pietro Bazzanti produced marble statuary and pietre dure ornament. Their clientele included European and Russian aristocracy, and the industrial fortunes being made in England and America drove considerable export demand. Historicising romantic subjects were very popular in Italian sculpture of the late 19th century and here Bazzanti depicts, with typical sentimentality, the game of ‘he loves me, he loves me not’. The lady plucks the petals of a daisy to determine if she is the object of his affection, whilst he gently turns her towards him to surprise her with the jewelled gift he holds behind his back. Please see Lot 160 for a pietre dure topped table by Pietro Bazzanti and Lot 130 for a statue of Venus and Cupid carved by Cesare Lapini and retailed by Galleria Bazzanti.