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Lot Essay
Following Napoleon's gift of the Principato of Lucca to his sister, Elisa Baciocchi in 1805, the Empire style promoted by Messrs. Percier and Fontaine in their Recueil des Décorons Intérieures of 1801 was adopted throughout Lucca and Northern Italy. Appointing the French-trained ébeniste Jean-Baptiste-Gilles Youf (1762-1838) as her official cabinet-maker, she commssioned Empire-style furniture for her appartements in the Palace of Lucca, as well as for the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. Inevitably, her abundant patronage influenced a number of local craftsmen, and this included 'Le Jacob Florentin', Giovanni Socci (fl.1807-1839), as well as his contemporaries Giuseppe Colzi and Jacopo Ciacchi, who worked to designs by the architect Giuseppe Cicialli (1770-1828).
This remarkable lit en bateau shares several distinctive features with the documented oeuvres of the Lucchese followers of Jacob. Specifically, the inverted dome also features on a stool made by Ciacci after a design by Cacialli (A.M. Masinelli, op. cit., pl.177), as well as on a gueridon table and a jardiniere by Colzi (op. cit., pls.180 and XCV). Moreover, the rope-netting motif can also be found on a drum-shaped commode supplied by Jacopo Ciacchi and the carver Paolo Sani after designs by Cacialli for the Sale dei Tamburi in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence (op. cit., pl.179).
This remarkable lit en bateau shares several distinctive features with the documented oeuvres of the Lucchese followers of Jacob. Specifically, the inverted dome also features on a stool made by Ciacci after a design by Cacialli (A.M. Masinelli, op. cit., pl.177), as well as on a gueridon table and a jardiniere by Colzi (op. cit., pls.180 and XCV). Moreover, the rope-netting motif can also be found on a drum-shaped commode supplied by Jacopo Ciacchi and the carver Paolo Sani after designs by Cacialli for the Sale dei Tamburi in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence (op. cit., pl.179).