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Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level D , Case MB8 (R), Shelf SH11

Design

ca. 1860 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This design is part of an album of drawings circa 1860 for cabinets, bookcases, mirror frames, sofas, chairs, and other furniture and ornaments, mostly in neo-rococo and neo-renaissance styles. The album also contains a few eighteenth-century designs from a different hand.

The collection appears to be the working drawings of an Italian cabinet maker. They have all the marks of having been used. Some designs are highly finished and could have been presentation pieces. Some show two versions of the same piece. The present album, probably bound in the 1870s, may have been formed once the historical value of the drawings had outweighed their practical worth.

The present designs are very similar to the furniture produced by the mid-19th century Florentine furniture makers Francesco Morini and, most particularly, Giuseppe Poggi (1801-1911) who provided furniture for the Florentine nobility circa 1840-60. Both makers re-interpreted historical styles and created elaborate neo-Renaissance/Baroque and neo-rococo pieces. Neo-Renaissance style was particularly fashionable in nineteenth-century Italy as it was considered the 'national style'.

The inscriptions in French might suggest that the furniture was intended for a French clientele living in Florence in the 19th century, such as for instance Baroness Fiorella Favard de l'Anglade who commissioned Poggi to furnish her villa with historicising furniture (the furniture sold in 1893 but a photographic catalogue of it remains). Alternatively, the French inscriptions might indicate that the designs and furniture were intended for a broader Northern Italian market


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Graphite
Brief description
Design for furniture, Italian, ca. 1860
Physical description
Furniture design
Dimensions
  • Length: 491mm
  • Width: 338mm
Production typeDesign
Summary
This design is part of an album of drawings circa 1860 for cabinets, bookcases, mirror frames, sofas, chairs, and other furniture and ornaments, mostly in neo-rococo and neo-renaissance styles. The album also contains a few eighteenth-century designs from a different hand.

The collection appears to be the working drawings of an Italian cabinet maker. They have all the marks of having been used. Some designs are highly finished and could have been presentation pieces. Some show two versions of the same piece. The present album, probably bound in the 1870s, may have been formed once the historical value of the drawings had outweighed their practical worth.

The present designs are very similar to the furniture produced by the mid-19th century Florentine furniture makers Francesco Morini and, most particularly, Giuseppe Poggi (1801-1911) who provided furniture for the Florentine nobility circa 1840-60. Both makers re-interpreted historical styles and created elaborate neo-Renaissance/Baroque and neo-rococo pieces. Neo-Renaissance style was particularly fashionable in nineteenth-century Italy as it was considered the 'national style'.

The inscriptions in French might suggest that the furniture was intended for a French clientele living in Florence in the 19th century, such as for instance Baroness Fiorella Favard de l'Anglade who commissioned Poggi to furnish her villa with historicising furniture (the furniture sold in 1893 but a photographic catalogue of it remains). Alternatively, the French inscriptions might indicate that the designs and furniture were intended for a broader Northern Italian market
Collection
Accession number
E.666:75-2009

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Record createdJanuary 12, 2010
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