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Leather Panel

1500-1650 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Gilt leather wall hanging, a 'door-curtain' or 'portiera', consisting of six panels, with twelve borders all-around. In the centre is an unidentified, but probably Venetian, shield of arms in proper colours within a red ribbon. The panels are decorated with an assymmetrical amorphous pattern, gilded on a red (?) ground. All the borders have the same identical pattern of floral ornaments. The gilded parts have been punched with several different stamps.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Embossed and gilded leather
Brief description
Gilt leather wall hanging, a 'door-curtain' or 'portiera', painted with a foliated pattern and, in the centre, a coat of arms in green and red. Punched in the background, Spain or Venice, ca. 1500-1650.
Physical description
Gilt leather wall hanging, a 'door-curtain' or 'portiera', consisting of six panels, with twelve borders all-around. In the centre is an unidentified, but probably Venetian, shield of arms in proper colours within a red ribbon. The panels are decorated with an assymmetrical amorphous pattern, gilded on a red (?) ground. All the borders have the same identical pattern of floral ornaments. The gilded parts have been punched with several different stamps.
Dimensions
  • Height: 256cm (total)
  • Width: 174cm (total)
  • Panel height: 68cm
  • Panel width: 61.5cm
  • Side border height: 68.5cm
  • Side border width: 23.5cm
  • Top border height: 24.5cm
  • Top border width: 67.5cm
Original measurements: H. 8 ft. 3 in. W. 6 ft. 3 in. The dimensions of the bottom-border are 23.5 x 68.5 cm.
Object history
Bought for £12 by Puttick & Simpsons, 47 Leicester Square. Lot 305 Sale of effects of late W. Burges A.R.A. Condition "Much worn and torn."
Sir P. C. Owen RP 1647/1882

A sketch (museum number: 141A-1882) by William Burges A.R.A. (1827-1881), now in the printroom of the Victoria & Albert Museum, was acquired with this wall hanging. This hanging was acquired in the sale of effects of the late W. Burges ARA, Puttich & Simpson, 47. Leicester Square, London, 21/03/1882, lot no. 305: 'An ancient embossed gold leather curtain'.

Similar 'portieri' are in the collections of Museum Stibbert in Florence, inventory numbers 7, 8 and 9; Museo Nazionale di Castel S. Angelo in Rome, inventory number unknown, Museo dell Settecento, Venice, inventory number unknown, and V&A, museum number 692-1890. In all these cases, however, the patterns of the panels and the coat of arms are different from this 'portiera'. Identical panels can be found on the wall hanging in the pawnbroker-shop in Treviso, near Venice, which is dated in the first half of the 17th century; and on two panels in Museo Stibbert, Florence, inventory numbers 86 and unknown. The gilt leather hanging V&A, museum numbers 694-1890 (a slightly different pattern) and 710-1890.

This wall hanging has been analysed as part of the gilt leather cataloguing project in 1996. Eloy Koldeweij, October 1996.

See also: A Technical investigation into the methods and materials used for gilt leather manufacture from the collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum (unpublished report, c.1996, held by the FTF Dept.), item 2
Report prepared by Christopher Calnan, Adviser on Conservation of Organic Materials at the National Trust, London.
Examination of decorative surface carried out by Catherine Hassell, University College, London
Examination of vegetable tannins carried out by Jan Wouters, KIK, Brussels.
Associated object
141A-1882 (Depiction)
Bibliographic reference
Koldeweij, Eloy F. 'Gilt Leather as an Upholstery Material', in Riggisberger Berichte, no. 17, Furnishing Textiles. Studies in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Interior Decoration', published by the Abeff Stiftung, 2009, pp. 179-236, p.188, note 35
Collection
Accession number
141-1882

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
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