Impressive 23" early 20th c. alabaster Model of the Leaning Tower, Pisa

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Impressive 23" early 20th c. alabaster Model of the Leaning Tower, Pisa

About the Item

Tower of Pisa. Volterran alabaster, early 20th century. Measures: 23” H. Many Italian monuments are famed, in part, for their perfection. The Pantheon, Colosseum, Forum Temples are iconic embodiments of their types. Only very rarely is a building celebrated for its failure. As early as the 1820s, London mineralogist John Mawe’s Catalogues offered carved alabaster miniatures of Pisa’s leaning tower: alongside stone replicas of other well-known Italian monuments. Unlike others of Mawe’s miniature monuments, which were fashioned in England of Derbyshire’s ‘Black Marble’, his Italian models were almost certainly made in Italy, probably in Volterra, and exported. In England, these may have received the Mawe’s paper label, or likely prior to export, been engraved with his name and shop address. In Pisa, in the mid-19th century, the leading maker of souvenir alabaster architectural models was Hendrik van Lint, who also published a Catalogue, also in English. It is not impossible that the entrepreneur van Lint (also a photographer, among other occupations) was Mawe’s Pisan contact. Because the subjects and methods for making alabaster models varied little across the 19th and 20th centuries, it is often difficult to ascribe dates of manufacture, with any real precision. This unusually large model of the Leaning Tower was, at one point, outfitted as an electric lamp; the translucent lines at its interior a species of shade. Perhaps it was initially made this way, Perhaps (like so many other interesting old objects), it was converted. If the latter, this suggests a date early in the last century; if the former, a measurably later date is more likely. Today, of course, the production of miniature Pisa towers continues apace. These, though, are not rather finely carved alabaster from the nearby millennia old quarries at Volterra; but molded (crudely) of a slow-congealing petrochemical resin, whose source could be almost anywhere.

Dimensions:
Height: 23 in (58.42 cm)Diameter: 6 in (15.24 cm)
Style:
Grand Tour (In the Style Of)
Materials and Techniques:
Alabaster,Carved
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
Early 20th Century
Date of Manufacture:
circa 1905
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use. The main shaft of the tower is 6" in diameter, and the base is 13"in diameter.
Seller Location:
Lafayette, CA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU114323428502

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