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Pair of sideboards Lucchese manufacture second decade of the 19th century

About the Item

Pair of sideboards panelled in mahogany feather, resting on feet of which the front ones with a circular plinth, supporting uprights in the form of a lictor's fasces, terminating in leafy capitals. There is a pair of doors on the front to conceal three drawers, also veneered in mahogany feather; two additional drawers are concealed in the lower and undercounter fascias. The meeting point between the two sashes is decorated with a symmetrical phytomorphic carving; floral and antemium carvings also adorn the under-shelf band, both on the front and the sides. The white Carrara marble top follows the contour of the cabinet, and the interior is chestnut and poplar. While Lucca had been able to boast the status of an independent republic until 1799, that same year there was its fall and subsequent subjugation to the French. In 1805, at the explicit request of the city's senate, the Principality of Lucca and Piombino was sanctioned, the direction of which was entrusted directly by Napoleon Bonaparte to Felice Baciocchi, a Corsican general who a few years earlier had married its younger sister Elisa. She herself was given the honorary title of Grand Duchess of Tuscany and, in fact, it was she who ruled the territories directed by her husband. Naturally, the influence of the French rulers was also reflected in artistic choices, drawing workers directly from Paris and commissioning local workshops to create works and furnishings that echoed transalpine taste. Contrary to the profound political change initiated during the Restoration period, which had sought to restore the pre-Revolutionary situation with the Congress of Vienna, the fashion for French furniture in the wake of what had been the Empire style continued in the following years. This mode was also found in Lucca itself, where Maria Luisa of Bourbon was established, who in the work of modernizing the Ducal Palace, directed by architect Lorenzo Nottolini, had furniture made faithful to this taste. Such is the case with our pair of sideboards, overtly French in architectural and ornamental taste, but more homegrown in the choice of materials used. While the mahogany used for the veneer was a favorite wood in France, a different argument must be made for the woods used in making the frame. This is in fact not oak, which is more common in French-made furniture, but chestnut, a local wood widely used in making the structural part of furniture in central Italy. Similar discussion for poplar, which is found in the construction of the hull sides of our commodes, also frequently used in Tuscan furniture. As mentioned earlier, the phytomorphic carvings and architectural layout also hark back to French taste: the circular plinth front feet, the drawer in the lower band as well as the two doors concealing the inner drawer unit are modes of execution that were widely used in France at the time. The idea of uprights in the shape of fasces lictorius also comes from this type of taste, with several examples in numerous pieces of furniture. Among the most fitting comparisons in our case are some of the furnishings signed Jean-Jacques Werner, a Swiss cabinetmaker but active in Paris: the commode that came from the Governor's apartment at the Invalides and is now at the Musée des Artes Décoratifs, or the commode-secrétaire from the Grand Trianon dated 1819. The former is in fact characterized by the uprights in the shape of fasces lictors, while the latter features phytomorphic racemes on the front doors, making interesting comparisons possible even though those on the Versailles cabinet, as well as the rest of the decoration, are in gilded bronze and not carved wood as in our case. This last peculiarity of the furniture under consideration further allows us to approximate its production to a manufacture of Italian scope, where the availability of bronzes of fine workmanship was certainly more difficult, if not by importing them directly from France; on the other hand, the high quality of the cabinetry reminds us of skilled artists who entertained a close relationship with the transalpine country, if not the origin itself. It is no coincidence, perhaps, that in Lucca in those years the main workshop active for the Baciocchi first and for the Bourbon later was that of the Youf brothers, in whose production we find similar characteristics to those set out above for the pair of sideboards: they declare, in fact, their being French cabinetmakers in the taste and structure of the furnishings, while showing themselves to be open to Italian influences in the use of materials.

Dimensions:

Height: 40.16 in (102 cm)Width: 55.32 in (140.5 cm)Depth: 27.17 in (69 cm)

Sold As:

Set of 2

Style:

Restauration (Of the Period)

Materials and Techniques:

Chestnut,Marble,Poplar

Place of Origin:

Italy

Period:

1820-1829