An Italian rococo carved giltwood, lacca povera and painted bureau cabinet, mid-18th century

the moulded arched cornice with carved and pierced cresting of foliage and rocaille above a pair of panelled doors opening to an arrangement of three shelves, the lower section with a shaped slant front enclosing a fitted interior of three drawers, above three long drawers en arbalète, rounded corners and serpentine sides, raised on four carved giltwood feet; the whole decorated with pastoral and Commedia dell'Arte lacca povera vignettes and painted landscapes within cartouches, the red lacquered chinoiserie ground with gilt ribbon-tied flowers, trailing foliage, chinoiserie trelliswork motifs and exotic birds

Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery (1847-1929), by whom probably acquired for Villa Delahante-Rosebery at Posillipo around 1897;

Thence to his son Harry Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery (1882-1974);

His second wife Eva Primrose, Countess of Rosebery (1892-1987);

Sold on behalf of the estate, Sotheby’s London, Important Continental Furniture and Tapestries, 30 November 1990, lot 94 (£159,500);

A Spanish Private Collector, thence by descent.

Related literature

C. Alberici, Il mobile veneto, Milan, 1980, fig. 171;

E. Colle, Il mobile rococò in Italia, Milan, 2003, pp. 313-25;

G. Doria, “Villa Rosebery”, in I palazzi di Napoli, Naples, 1992;

M. Kopplin, European Lacquer, Munich, 2010;

H. Costantino Fioratti, Il mobile italiano dall’antichità allo stile impero, Milan, 2004;

S. Levy, G. Morazzoni, Il mobile veneziano del Settecento, 2 vols., Milan, 1964;

S. Levy, Lacche veneziane settecentesche, II vols., Milan, 1967;

G. Morazzoni, Il Mobile veneziano del Settecento, Milan, 1958;

P. Remington, “Venetian Lacquer”, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 20, no. 10 (Oct. 1925), pp. 239-44;

C. Santini, Le lacche dei veneziani, Modena, 2003.

This impressive bureau is in reasonable conserved condition, displaying wear, constructions cracks, marks and scratches consistent with age and use. The carved giltwood crest has been regilt at some point in its life and it has repairs to breaks, as well as a loss to the right end and to the very top. The corner mouldings to crest are possibly later replacements. The red lacquer ground has had retouching throughout including to its gilt decoration. The painted and lacca povera panels also display retouching and there are some losses to the printed paper. The varnish applied throughout has become slightly yellow, which is more visible to the fall front. The decoration of the fall front has suffered from wear both to prints and painted areas, displaying now extensive redecoration. It has a stable construction crack to its entire length. There are marks of old woodworm activity that seems to be no longer active. The interior displays better colour and in better condition than the exterior. The plain shelves do have some wear to painting. A wonderfully decorative piece with great presence.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

A masterpiece of lacca povera

This magnificent bureau cabinet stands apart as one of the most successful pieces of lacca povera furniture. The arresting design, enhanced by moulded contouring, gives the piece a stately presence, whilst the varnished decoration retains all the fresh playfulness so typical of Italy’s dipintori. The tension between the lively scenes, the sinuosity of the lower section, the chinoiserie decoration on a red lacquered ground all contained within marbleized borders, is admirably orchestrated. The cabinet happily manages to evoke those grand rococo interiors where “the reflections of the polished inlaid floors, the walls covered with brocades, and the delicate mouldings formed a happy frame for elegant ladies […] the tapestries on the walls, the stuffs embroidered with gold, formed a setting in harmony with the figures of the gentlemen wearing […] jackets of embroidered silks, the elegance of the furniture, and the harmonious colours rested and charmed the eye.”¹

The design

The architectural solution on the Rosebery bureau cabinet is extremely rare, and makes an attribution to a region a challenging one. The design strongly distances itself from the Dutch and English prototypes with broken pediment and double bonnet head, but also from the excesses of much Venetian furniture produced from around the mid-18^th century. A similar arrangement of cornice and pediment is nevertheless found on a walnut bureau cabinet formerly in the Milanese collection of Tullio Silva, and attributed then to Venice.²

An important bureau cabinet from the Visconti Collection and now in the Raccolte Civiche, Castello Sforzesco, Milan (inv. no. 355, fig. 2), also formerly attributed to Venice, but of Lombard production, presents such quality of lacca povera and uses painted landscape making it a relevant comparison to the present piece.

Nevertheless, some elements in the present bureau, suggest Sicily as a possible production centre for it. Despite the lack of studies on the subject, some unusual design solutions such as the shaped sides or even the giltwood cresting, which reminds coeval Spanish carving, might indicate an exceptional commission in Palermo. The light tone colour scheme and the lack of a strong shiny varnish as seen in Venetian examples also support this theory. One example, a lacca povera and carved giltwood dressing table, published by Levy as Venetian (vol. II, tav.214, Coll. Pozzi, Milano), is now thought to be Sicilian and presents a similar arrangement to the fall front.

Another example, a painted and lacca povera bureau-cabinet (Morrazoni, pl.CLXXXI, Coll. Guaita, Cadenabbia, Como) is now considered Sicilian and presents similar proportions, namely the shallow upper section and again the space between the lower section and fall front.

Very little is known about Italian lacquer outside Veneto and Piedmont, and this has led to many pieces being erroneously attributed to Venice. Interestingly, together with the present lot, one of the most extraordinary examples is provided by a sculptural bureau cabinet unmistakably Roman in shape now in the Ann Getty Collection, San Francisco (fig. 1) and which, with its red and gilt lacquered ground, comprising chinoiserie and European elements and imposing symmetric scale, is also a relevant comparable piece (sold Sotheby's New York, 3 November 1989, lot 90, $1,210,000).

Interestingly, however, a number of Lombard pieces again display relatable giltwood carving and pediment design, but also the characteristic moulded framing of the drawers. One should also note the proximity to the Veneto republic, and also the particular feature of the slant desk section, normally with a shaped recess all around, seen specifically in Lombard furniture.

Lacquer from Venice to the rest of Italy

Because of its commercial links with the Near- and Middle-East, Venice was the cradle of Italian lacquer production. Luxury goods from the Islamic world, including lacquered pieces, were already coveted by merchants in the 15th century and traded in the markets of the Serenissima. At the same time, Venetian craftsmen were also creating small pieces such as table cabinets that made use of varnishes, namely sandarac, a resin imported from the East.

In the second half of the 17^th century the city’s furniture decorators, adapted their lacquering techniques to the new trend of chinoiserie, inspired by East Asian boxes but also, perhaps more directly, by japanned pieces imported from England and Holland. The English influence was certainly considerable, to the point that some Chinoiserie lacquer pieces are hardly distinguishable without examining the timbers of the pieces in question, Venetian cabinet-makers customarily using walnut and cirmolo, a variety of Alpine fir.

Lacquerers began combining the chinoiserie motifs in the Northern fashion, with European motifs popularized by the literary pastoral ideals introduced at the end of the previous century by the Accademia dell’Arcadia as a reaction to the “bad taste” of the Baroque,³ and which found fertile soil throughout Europe, represented in the fine arts by the likes of Jean-Antoine Watteau and François Boucher.

Lacca povera and the decorative scheme

Born as an easy alternative to the laborious process of lacquer in the 17^th century, lacca povera, also termed arte povera, or contraffatta, consists of a series of pattern sheets that are cut out and glued to a prepared ground before being painted (usually in tempera) and finished with up to eighteen layers of a transparent, sandarac-based lacquer.

Lacca povera marks an evolution in the taste for lacquer: a move away from the imitation of East Asian lacquers towards a more idiosyncratically European style. Some pieces from around the mid-18^th century however do retain elements of this previous fashion, such as the edging elements and surface background patters in what is a contaminatio of two different languages. Such is the case with the Rosebery bureau cabinet but also of the Roman one, where, Kopplin (2010, p. 27) notes, “symptoms of the English influence include the vermilion lacquer ground and the decorative design of the fall-front’s borders with their slender cartouches embedded in a Chinese coin pattern.” 

The craze for lacca povera resulted in a decorative koiné which spread from Venice to other Italian centres, to France and Germany, publications and prints establishing this a genteel pursuit. Pattern sheets were printed in Augsburg and Nuremberg, but others came from France, although by far the most prolific centre was the stamperia of the Ramondinis in Bassano, Veneto. Using extremely fine paper that needed to be resistant to the tempera colouring and the several coatings of varnish, these included pastoral themes, fêtes galantes, and country scenes from painters such as Watteau, Ricci or Zuccarelli, and architectural views, flower garlands, and trees of all shapes. For example, a delightful detail on the Rosebery cabinet is on the upper cartouche across the cupboard doors where, on the left, is a scene clearly inspired by Jean-Antoine Watteau’s La Gamme d’Amour (1715-18), later engraved by Le Bas. Other popular figurines in Venice obviously include those of the Commedia dell’Arte, some of which such as Harlequin we encounter on the present lot.

Lord Rosebery and Villa Rosebery

Archibald Primrose, 5^th Earl of Rosebery (1847-1929), was one of the most brilliant political figures of 19^th century Britain, serving as Prime Minister in 1894-95. In 1878, Rosebery married Hannah de Rothschild (1851-1890), the heiress of Mayer Amschel de Rothschild, and the wealthiest women of her time. Together, they were able to augment their art collections in their residences of Mentmore Towers, 107 Piccadilly and 38 Berkeley Square. Acquisitions included works by Bronzino, Holbein, Tiepolo, Hogarth, and Turner, but also encompassed important pieces of furniture purchased in England and during the frequent sojourns to the Continent.

In 1897 Lord Rosebery, then a widower, bought the neoclassical villa on the cliffs in Posillipo, near Naples from the French banker Gustave Delahante. Surrounded by a vast garden with terraces and orchards, it had been built by Joseph von Thurn around 1801 and then transformed under the ownership of Prince Luigi Carlo Maria di Borbone, Count d’Aquila, brother of Ferdinand II and uncle of Francesco II of Naples. The villa was in part furnished on the advice of Neville Rolfe, the British consul and archaeologist, but Rosebery seems to have bought much of the furniture from Neapolitan dealers himself. From 1909 the villa was leased to the British Government and in 1932 gifted by Rosebery’s heirs to the Royal House of Savoy. It is today the summer residence of the Italian President.

Possibly acquired by Rosebery in Naples, the bureau cabinet reached Mentmore Towers in the early 1930s at the latest, before being removed to Cleveland House, Newmarket in 1977. Not in the Rothschild taste, it was part of a group of Italian painted furniture the Earl had started collecting after his wife’s death in 1890, and of which a rare transitional small commode with lacca povera and marbleised decoration was also part (sold Sotheby’s, Mentmore, 18-20 May 1977, lot 923, and a rare pair of Neapolitan commodes (sold these Rooms, 30 November 1990, lot 117).

Conclusion

An outstanding piece, the Rosebery cabinet was likely intended to adorn an aristocratic Italian, where it would have stood as a playful fashion statement. Its unusually articulated lacca povera ornamentation on an elegantly sketched landscape background makes it one of the finest pieces of its kind. Amongst the exotic and the pastoral, the sinuous yet symmetrical lines give it the noble aplomb typical of the best Italian lacquer furniture which, in Remington’s words, displayed “charm and variety of colour, an intimacy and informality of decoration which makes for far greater appeal than technical perfection, and unquestionably place it among the finest artistic products of the eighteenth century.”

Footnotes

¹ P. Molmenti, La Vie Privée à Venise, Venice, 1882, vol. III, p. 14, quoted in Remington, 1925, p. 240.

² This bureau-cabinet, inlaid in fruitwood, is illustrated in Levy, 1964, vol. II, tav. xxv.

³ See Doria, 1992, p. 160.