An ebony veneered Italian Baroque coffer with fruit inlaid decor.
With ormolu and semi-precious stone appliques and red velvet lining. An ebony veneered Italian Baroque coffer with fruit inlaid decor. Several breakages and cracks to the wood, two medallions to the lid and the bowl lost. H 19.5, W 25.8, D 25 cm.
Presumably Florence, 18th C.
The technique of decorating panels with hardstone sculpted fruit was probably developed in Florence, but it was honed to perfection by Italian craftsmen headhunted for the Gobelins manufactory in Paris. Many of these fine works were reused by cabinetmakers such as Martin Carlin and Adam Weisweiler for courtly furniture during the 1770s and 1780s. They were often applied together with pictorial plaques from the Florentine Galleria dei Lavori. These magnificent stone reliefs were considered a rarity for over 100 years, until the popularity of the Grand Tour began to encourage their production and dissemination throughout Europe. To accentuate the vivid colours and sculptural qualities of the carvings, they were traditionally applied to a black ground and enriched with ormolu appliques.
Literature
Cf. the coffers from the Botteghe Granducali in Florence after designs by Gian Battista Foggini im cat.: Bronzi Decorative in Italia, Milano 2001, N. 29.
For the works from Gobelins cf.: Koeppe/Giusti, Art of the Royal Court, New York 2008, no. 132 f.
Cf. also: Giusti, Pietra Dura, Munich 2005, p. 150 ff.