PROBABLY 19TH CENTURY

The finely detailed and jewel-like carving of this elegant console is characteristic for the circle of carvers and cabinet-makers in Turin patronized by the royal family. The most celebrated of these was Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo (1745-1820), who worked for the Court from 1773, however, other skilled craftsmen and intagliatori such as Francesco Tanadei, Giuseppe Marchino, Francesco Novaro and FrancescoBolgiè, working around Bonzanigo, were also commissioned to provide work for Stupinigi, Moncalieri, Venaria, Rivoli and most of all for the Palazzo Reale in the centre of Turin. The design of this console table furthermore relates to the work of the Rome-trained architect Jean Demosthene Dugourc (d.1825), who was patronised by the Duc d'Orleans from 1780 and was the author of a suite of 'Arabesques' or Roman
ornament issued in 1782. A pioneer of the Etruscan or Pompeain style Dugourc was appointed 'Dessinateur' of Louis XVI's Garde-Meuble de la Couronne and executed designs for Fontainebleau.