Icilio Federico Joni, Tavoletta, purporting to be from the 1475 accounts of the Duomo, Siena [Italy (Siena), late 19th or early 20th century]

wooden panel, 375x270mm, the upper part painted with the Piccolomini arms, the lower part with nine further shields and ‘INVENTARIO DELLE COSE MOBILI DELLA SAGRESTIA DEL DUOMO DI SIENA AL TEMPO DEL SAVIO UOMO NICCOLO DI VENTURA A.D. 1475’, all within typical scrollwork borders, with a vertical split, abrasion to the pigments, and other small losses

‘Tavolette di Biccherna’ were the book-covers used by the Biccherna (Public Treasury) of Siena from the 13th century to 1459, on their bi-annual account-books, often decorated by the leading artists of the day; examples signed by Sano di Pietro, Giovanni di Paolo, Lorenzo Vecchietta and others, are exhibited today in the Museo delle Tavolette di Biccherna in Siena. Icilio Federico Joni (1866-1946) was born in Siena and worked as a painter, gilder, and restorer, and after reading a pamphlet about the Tavolette started to fabricate examples himself. In his autobiography he describes various techniques for making them look old using soot, turmeric, and chrome yellow; metal fittings were treated with ammonia or dipped in iodine to produce the right kind of rusting. Joni seems to have been quite open about his work: in 1904 he was commissioned to produce one for Lady Wantage, and signed it with his own name.

Interestingly, the present example does not purport to come from the Biccherna, but instead from the Sacristy of the Duomo: it may therefore be the very one mentioned in Joni’s autobiography as being spotted in a dealer’s window and reported to the police, assumed to be stolen (see H.M. Nixon, ‘Binding Forgeries’, Transactions of the VIth International Congress of Bibliophiles, 1971, pp.69-83, at p.72).

Nixon knew of 10 examples, and in 1985 M. Foot knew of four more (‘A Pair of Bookcovers of the late 19th Century by I.F. Joni’, Book Collector, 1985, pp.488-89), since when more have come to light. Recent studies include G. Mazzoni, Falsi d’autore: Icilio Federico Joni e la cultura del falso tra Otto e Novecento, 2004. As with works by the Spanish Forger, they are now highly collectible by private collectors and institutions alike, with examples recorded in the British Library, Bridwell Library, and elsewhere.