An Italian parcel-gilt, rosewood and marquetry bureau cabinet, Rome, third quarter 18th century

A grand piece of case furniture like this bureau-cabinet would have been the focal point of an opulent Roman interior, combining stately proportions, practical desk utility and a rich ornamental scheme that combines veneers, gilding and sculpture.

The bureau-cabinet form of this piece is an example of the influence of English design on Italian furniture, a phenomenon would become more pronounced during the ‘Anglomania’ trends of the second half of the eighteenth century but was already clearly observable around the mid-century. English styles such as the pierced splat-back chair were seen as elegant, modest and simple, and inventories of the period often refer specifically to, for instance, “un burò […] fatto all’uso inglese” [“a bureau […] made in the English manner”].¹ This typically English form of bureau with a sloping lid also transcends the highly regional identity of Italian furniture in the eighteenth century, with comparable examples appearing not only in Lombardy, Piedmont, Liguria and Veneto² but even as far south as Sicily.³

As a specific example of this fashionable bureau-cabinet form, the present piece boasts a particularly decorative combination of delicate, closely observed floral marquetry, applied giltwood decoration to add sculptural relief, and an architectural conceit of decorative pilasters flanking to the mirrored doors. Some of these features are consistent with comparable examples of Roman bureaux-cabinets studied by Alvar Gonzàles-Palacios – for instance, similar applied giltwood ornament can be seen on two examples of Roman bureaux-cabinets and two related bureaux with a vitrine-form upper sections.⁴ A particularly glorious Roman bureau-cabinet of this type is in the Palazzo Sacchetti, and boasts engraved mirrors including an unusual third one in the crest, as well as an inverted breakfront form to the chest of drawers that is closely similar to the present lot.⁵ Another bureau-cabinet with profuse marquetry and a fine interior decorated with penwork is in the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi in Rome.⁶ It is worth noting that, while the motif is common on the analogous English models of bureau-cabinet, the present lot is the only one among these comparable Roman examples to employ pilaster-like decoration around the mirrors. The only other example is a remarkably similar bureau-bookcase also has the same placement of applied giltwood decoration and a striking number of other decorative similarities (including even the bracket feet), which sold in Stuttgart in 1998.⁷

¹ A. Gonzàles-Palacios, Il Mobile a Roma: il Settecento, Rome, 2024, p.180.

² A large variety can be seen in S. Colombo, L’arte del legno e del mobile in Italia, Milan, 1981, cat.376-415. A lovely Ligurian example is in E. Colle Il Mobile Rococò in Italia, Milan, 2003, pp.254-255, cat.57.

³ See H. Fioratti, Il mobile Italiano, Florence, 2004, p.130 fig.224 for an early-seventeenth-century Sicilian example.

⁴ For the bureaux-cabinets, Gonzàles-Palacios, op. cit., 2024, p.180 and A. Gonzàles-Palacios, Arredi e ornamenti alla corte di Roma, Milan, 2004, pp.182-3; for the vitrines, see Gonzàles-Palacios, op. cit., 2004, p.187.

⁵ E. Colle, ‘L’Arredo’ in S. Schütze (ed), Palazzo Sacchetti, Rome, 2003, p.150.

⁶ Gonzàles-Palacios, op. cit., 2024, pp.182-183.

⁷ Nagel, Stuttgart, 20-21 March 1998, lot 1461.