PROBABLY FLORENCE, SECOND HALF 19TH CENTURY

The present cabinet, featuring an abundance of semi-precious stones amongst stylized ivory-inlaid foliage, is inspired by the luxurious inlaid furniture of the Italian High Renaissance. Promoted amongst craftsmen such as Pietro Bertinetti, who often reinterpreted or combined the forms and motifs of both Classical and Renaissance art, the fashion for certosa-style inlay flourished from the mid-nineteenth century. Whilst the quality of construction and execution of the inlay suggests a Florentine origin, the decorative language of the cabinet, with its Cinquecento rinceaux scrolls, amorini and cameos, is modelled on the North Italian workshops. Featuring an eclectic combination of various decorative elements in keeping with the Renaissance revival, the cabinet’s inlay is certainly comparable with the work of subsequent exponents of this technique, such as Giovanni Battista Gatti and Ferdinando Pogliani. In particular, the presence of malachite and lapis lazuli recalls the work of Gatti, who was renowned for his skill incorporating semi-precious stones and marbles against an ebony ground. The present cabinet is similar in form and ornamentation to one sold Sotheby’s, Milan, 16 December 2003, lot 275 (€45,600), while a further related cabinet is recorded in C. Payne, European Furniture of the 19th Century, Woodbridge, 1981, p. 293.

An attribution to a Florentine maker ties in with the provenance for the cabinet. By family tradition it was acquired by the Hon. Edward Vesey Bligh, son of Edward, 5th Earl Darnley of Cobham Hall, and is offered here by a descendent. Edward Bligh became British attaché to Florence in 1851 and maintained connections there. It is therefore plausible that he bought this cabinet in Florence. From 1874 he lived at Fatherwell Hall, Kent.