STONE: Marble and Hardstones
STONE: Marble and Hardstones
PROPERTY FROM THE ROSALINDE AND ARTHUR GILBERT COLLECTION
A GEORGE III PIETRE DURE MOUNTED MAHOGANY CABINET-ON-STAND THE PIETRE DURE PANELS, FLORENCE, MID-17TH CENTURY, THE CABINET-ON-STAND CIRCA 1765
Auction Closed
December 4, 11:48 AM GMT
Estimate
30,000 - 50,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property From The Rosalinde And Arthur Gilbert Collection
A GEORGE III PIETRE DURE MOUNTED MAHOGANY CABINET-ON-STAND THE PIETRE DURE PANELS, FLORENCE, MID-17TH CENTURY, THE CABINET-ON-STAND CIRCA 1765
the pierced-fret gallery centred with a pietre dure mounted arched cresting above a pair of banded mahogany doors, enclosing an arrangement of eighteen small rectangular pietre dure panels depicting flowers and birds, and a larger central panel with a lapis lazuli vase of flowers, on a pierced and blind fret stand, the back with a removeable panel enclosing and arrangement of hidden drawers
cabinet: 72.5cm. high, 87cm. wide, 42cm. deep
stand: 79.5cm. high, 80cm. wide, 39cm. deep
Formerly in the collection of Thomas Alexander Fermor-Hesketh, 3rd Bt. Lempster, at Easton Neston, Northamptonshire, England until sold Christie's London in the late 1960s;
Acquired from Richard Courtney, London, 1971.
C. Avery, assisted by Arthur Emperatori, Mosaics from the Gilbert Collection: summary catalogue, ex. cat., Victoria & Albert Museum. London, 1975, cat. no. 48, p.7.
A. González-Palacios, The Art of Mosaics: Selections from the Gilbert Collection, Los Angeles, 1977, cat. no. 5, p.32.
A. González-Palacios, and Steffi Röttgen with essays by Steffi Röttgen, Claudia Przyborowski; essays and new catalogue material translated by Alla Theodora Hall, The Art of Mosaics: Selections from the Gilbert Collection, Los Angeles, 1982, cat. no. 5, p. 90.
A. M. Massinelli, with contributions by Jeanette Hanisee Gabriel, Hardstones: The Gilbert Collection, London, 2000, cat. no. 3, pp. 36-37.
Sarti, Fastueux objets en marbre et pierres dures, Paris, 2006, p. 126, ill.2.
Incorporating 17th century Florentine panels, this cabinet is an homage to the output of the Grand Ducal workshops and provides an insight into the appetite for pietre dure works among the collecting elite of the 18th century. The taste for pietre dure among English patrons is well-documented; John Evelyn’s purchase of nineteen pietre dure panels in 1644 for a cabinet provides a frequently cited example of early English taste-making for these jewel-like objects (now at the V&A Museum, W.24-1977).
The vivid floral and ornithological panels, on a background of black marble edged with yellow marble borders, were created by the Galleria de' Lavori, the Medici grand-ducal workshop in Florence, founded by Grand Duke Ferdinando I of Tuscany in 1588 (renamed the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in the mid-1800s). The panels were almost certainly collected on the Grand Tour by a wealthy patron. The cabinet would have therefore functioned as both a Wunderkammer in the German tradition, the drawers and secret compartments to the back filled with precious objects, but also as a display of the considerable learning and wealth of its patron. The cabinet too would have commented on the patron's discerning taste, conceived in the latest fashion as promoted by Thomas Chippendale's Director (1754).
For a closely related example, see that sold Christie’s London, 6 July 2017, lot 6 (£137,000).