Prayer Desk (Inginocchiatoio), Italian, late 16th century, possibly created 1860-80, walnut

Prayer desk of walnut wood, with drawer and cupboard, which are seperated from one another by a projecting guilloche band. On either side of the drawer is a mask, and on either side of the cupboard is a winged terminal figure. A guilloche border runs round the door of the cupboard. The top of the step lifts up to form a lid.

Italian, sixteenth century.

Bought for £19 1s from Signori Fratelli Mora, Corso Vittorio Emanuele 12-14, Milan R.F. 1313/1892

Notes: see R.F. 311/1892, 1219/1892

Comparable objects

See Charles Tracy, Church Furniture in England – A Traffic in Piety (Woodbridge, 2001), H/2 (Italian early 17th century, pine, 89 x 60.5 x 43cm at Hever Castle, Kent), and H/3 (Italian early 17th century, walnut, 87.5 x 66.5 x 63cm at All Saints Church, Tooting Graveney, London).



Prayer desk, Italian 1600-25; walnut, pine; 37 1/4 x 30 x 22 inches (94.6 x 76.2 x 55.9 cm); Accession Number: 2006-117-1; Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Karl F. Ockert, 2006; Philadelphia Museum of Art - (http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/299283.html?mulR=286621352|75) consulted 18/9/2015: 1600-1625



Museo d'arti applicate. Mobili e intagli lignei / Enrico Colle ; con la collaborazione di Susanna Zanuso. (Milano : Electa, c1996), nos. 25-32



Brunella Teodori, Simone Chiarugi, Jennifer Celani, Attraverso il Novecento – Le Collezioni del Museo di Palazzo Davanzati, 2. Gli Arredi (Through the Twentieth Century – The Collections of the Museum of Palazzo Davanzati, 2. Furniture (Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo, 2016), nos. 61, 183



Ferenc Batári, and Erzsébet Vadászi ; edited by Elvira Király : Art of furniture-making from theGothic to the Biedermeier: European Furniture from the 15th to the 19th Century in the Nagytétény Castle Museum ([Budapest : Museum of Applied Arts], 2002.), colour plate III, no. 4 (Ragusa? c1600)

58-1892