A George III scagliola inlaid carrara marble chimneypiece irish, late 18th century, attributed to Pietro Bossi

Comparative Literature: Georgian Society Records, Vol. 1, 1909, pl. LXXXVII

Herbert Cescinsky, English Furniture of the Eighteenth Century, 1911, 3 Vols, Vol. III, p.65.

Good overall condition. Some of the elements to the moulding surrounding the aperture could possibly have been replaced. Restored break to the left jamb as you face the chimneypiece. General typical minor old chips marks and stains consistent with age and use.
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Not much is known about Pietro Bossi, although much inlay work of the late 18th century is commonly known as `Bossi-work'. An Italian craftsman, Bossi worked in Dublin from 1785 to 1798 and used coloured marble inlay and also a coloured paste inlay, known as scagliola, on a white marble ground. He is listed in the Dublin Directories as an `Inlayer in marble and Stucco Worker' at 22 Fleet Street in 1785-86 and at 38 Fleet Street in 1787-98.

His designs are in the Neo-classical style, a style disseminated by Robert Adam in 1770s. Bossi`s process was a closely guarded secret and was apparently carried out behind closed doors. He left Dublin in 1798 under a cloud of suspicion implicating him with the revolutionary movement.

Although there were other craftsmen producing this type of work, the present chimney piece can be attributed to Bossi because it shares some distinctive decoration with other pieces strongly believed to be by him. The overall style is typical of Bossi but in particular the Etruscan style red-figure medallions relate to those on a chimneypiece in the hall at Charlemont House, Dublin and another at Castletownshend, Co. Cork, both of which are attributed to Bossi. The medallions are inspired by Sir Wiliam Hamilton`s famous collection of antiqioties, which was published in the Catalogue of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Hon. W. Hamilton, by Baron Pierre Hughes d`Hancarville between 1766 and 1767, again showing the reliance on antique sources. The attribution to Bossi in both these cases is based on the same motif which appears on a pair of table tops. These tables and tops ( illus. The Knight of Glin and James Peill, Irish Furniture, 2007, p.168) are said to have been in the collection of the Dukes of Leinster and would have been supplied to the first Duke for either Carton or Leinster House.  Indeed another chimney piece with similar decoration to the present lot also survives in Leinster House. These tables are possibly those referred to in a recently advertisement in Saunder`s Newsletter, dated 22nd March 1786: `Pietro Bossi, Inlayer of Marble, lately removed to No. 38 Fleet-street, has now for sale an elegant pair of statuary marble tables, also chimney pieces, the whole inlaid scagliola..'  and have the same inlaid classical medallion as appears in the present lot.

Conor O`Neil in an article `In search of Bossi', Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies, The Journal of The Irish Georgian Society, Volume I, makes similar comparisons and draws the same conclusions.

For a further comparison see Sotheby`s New York, Important English Furniture and Decorations, 15 April 1994, lot 291 and also Christie`s New York, Important English Furniture and Works of Art, 12th October 1996, lot 69.