19th Century Decorative Art

19th century still life painting after Pieter Claesz (1597-1660) Dutch. This outstanding 19th century oil painting on copper shows an amazing intuitiv...

This is a remarkable early Victorian period wall charger, showcasing exquisite Persian craftsmanship, circa 1850. This large antique decorative presentation tray boasts intricate eng...

Matteo Lovatti (Italian, b. 1861) a fine 19th century oil on panel "The Young Prince's Visit" Depicting an interior tavern scene with a jester introducing and welcoming a young Princ...

19th Century French Majolica flowers plate.

A rare and visually striking framed antique European embroidered silk panel. Exquisitely hand-crafted in Continental Europe in the 19th ...

Great image of dolphins. Unframed. It gives you the option of perhaps making a set up using your own choice of frames. Lithograph after Cpt. brown with original hand color. ...

A lovely antique oil on linen painting from Spanish Colonial period late 18th-early 19th century. In the style of Classic Cuzco School, the painting depic...

French Majolica morning glory wall pocket fives lille, circa 1890. With a butterfly.

Colorful and rare majolica oyster plate Choisy Le roi unsigned, circa 1890. The six wells are blue between grey shells and the centre is pink.

The suzani fragment on the frame is from a 19th C. Suzani. It is hand backed on linen and streched over a strecher and finished with a wooden frame. Ready to go on any wall. The ite...

A Very Large and Exceptionally Fine Quality Antique Italian Micro-Mosaic Plaque Depicting "The Saint Peter Square" in Rome. The center medallion surrounded by a beautiful Laurel Wreath in multiple shades of Green Mosaic amidst a black Belgium Marble border. The interior rounded subject depicts Saint Peter Square which is found in Rome, Italy. The entire center panel is made up of a captivating array of tesserae in a variety of shapes and colors, which create this stunning mosaic construct. When inspected from up-close, small rectangular tesserae are found in an assortment of colors, which include: white, green, blue, red, black, brown, orange etc. When the subject is seen from afar, a fantastic image of the entire Saint Peter Square can be viewed as if a painting has been created. The oil on canvas of this scene, by was sold in Christie's Auction for over $2,000,000 USD. The plaque rests in a custom ebonized and gilt square frame. This can be used as a decorative object on the wall to serve as a painting, or, be converted to a table-top by mounting it on a table stand. Rome, Circa: 1850 Giovanni Paolo Panini (Piacenza 1691-1765 Rome), View of Saint Peter's Square, Rome. From Christie's Auction: Giovanni Paolo Panini arrived in Rome in 1711, painting capricci and architectural pieces in a vigorous if slightly eccentric style, and by 1719, when he was admitted to the Academy of St. Luke and the virtuosi al Pantheon, he was a rising star in the Roman art world. From around 1719-1726 he was much in demand for decorative frescoes, including quadratura, ornament and landscape and other genres, often in collaboration with figure or flower painters. During this period he worked for Cardinal Patrizi at Villa Patrizi, Cardinal Annibale Albani at Palazzo Albani (now del Drago) alle Quattro Fontane, Livio de Carolis at Palazzo de Carolis, Cardinal Alberoni at Palazzo Alberoni, Innocent XIII Conti in the Quirinal and in the library of S. Croce in Gerusalemme. In 1724 he married Caterina Gosset, the sister-in-law of Nicolas Vleughels, the director of the French Academy in Rome, to which he was admitted in 1732, and as a result he was much patronized by the French. During the 1720s he developed his figure style away from the awkwardness of his early works into one that concentrated on groups of stylishly-dressed aristocrats and skillfully modelled bystanders, sibyls and pseudo-antique figures. These he noted down in drawings (such as a sketchbook in the British Museum) that he drew upon to populate his paintings. He also began to receive commissions to design and record temporary festivals, often for French ambassadors to Rome. By the beginning of the 1730s Panini was developing a distinctive subgenre of the capriccio in which recognizable monuments are placed in imaginary topographical relationships, which were well-received in the classicizing era of Clement XII Corsini. In 1732 he was one of the panel of judges for the competition instituted by Clement for the Lateran façade, and in the following year painted an impressive View of Piazza del Quirinale for the pope. At about this time he was developing his best-known topographical subjects, interior views of St Peter's and the Pantheon, which were much in demand, to judge by the number of extant versions extending into the 1750s. By about 1734 he was beginning to attract the attention of English patrons, who ordered sets of Roman views, such as those at Marble Hill House (1738) and Castle Howard. In 1736, through Filippo Juvarra, he received important commissions from Philip V of Spain for scenes of the life of Christ in the Chinoiserie room at La Granja in Spain (1736). From as early as the 1720s he had been producing some vedute (view-paintings), initially based on prototypes by Gaspar van Wittel, and he developed the genre in subsequent decades in works that would include impressive panoramic views of the Forum or Palatine, although his staple genre was the capriccio rather than the veduta. He also expanded his repertory of church interiors, adding such churches as S. Paolo fuori le Mura and S. Agnese in Piazza Navona, as well as church interiors recording special events. His son by his first marriage, Giuseppe (1718-1805), began to support him in architectural and festival design projects. By the 1740s Panini was at the peak of his powers, and evidently had a considerable workshop helping him meet demand, especially of capricci to be used as overdoors and other decorative installations. Giovanni Paolo was successful in elevating himself socially above the usual artisanal status of genre painters, and would sometimes include a self-portrait in paintings commissioned by the great and powerful. He also appears to have been successful financially, and owned a substantial palazzo in via Monserrato. He increasingly concentrated on important commissions, such as a view of the Lottery in Piazza Montecitorio (London, National Gallery, 1743-1744), the designs for the festival decorations for the birth of the Dauphin in Palazzo Farnese (Waddesdon Manor, 1751), or the view of an imaginary picture gallery housing the collection of Cardinal Valenti Gonzaga (Wadsworth Atheneum, 1749). In the mid-1750s he received an important series of commissions from the Duc de Choiseul, French ambassador to Rome and soon to become one of the most powerful men in France, that included his best-known compositions, Ancient Rome (Roma Antica) and Modern Rome (Roma Moderna). These large paintings, of which there are three sets (in Boston and Stuttgart, the Metropolitan Museum, and the Louvre) represent imaginary picture galleries based on the Valenti Gonzaga composition but hung with what purport to be Panini's own vedute of ancient and modern sites respectively (with corresponding pieces of sculpture). These paintings sum up the eighteenth-century canon of the greatest works of architecture and sculpture, and the equivalence between modern and ancient Rome. By this time Panini was being assisted by his son by his second marriage, Francesco (1748-1800), who was a skilled draughtsman and painter who continued his father's work after his death in 1765. The Farnborough Hall paintings The Piazza S. Pietro and the Campidoglio are important vedute by Panini painted in 1750 and originally installed, with other works by Panini and Canaletto, in the seat of the Holbech family, Farnborough Hall, Warwickshire (National Trust). Farnborough Hall had been inherited in 1717 by William Holbech (circa 1699-1771), who is documented on the Grand Tour in Florence, Rome and Venice from late 1732 until his return home at the end of April 1734 with his brother Hugh. Holbech is said to have gone on the Grand Tour to recover from a broken heart and to have spent a considerable time there prior to these documented appearances. During his time in Rome he acquired two Paninis, which were seen by an anonymous antiquary around 1746, who referred to various sculptures "all brought from Rome with two pictures, one of the Rotunda, and the other of diverse buildings by Panino" (British Library, Add. MS 6230, pp. 31-32). The Rotunda (the Pantheon) is a painting now in a private collection in New York, and is signed and dated 1734. The Diverse Buildings, which was probably one of Panini's capricci, has not been identified. On his Grand Tour Holbech seems also to have acquired two Canalettos, although they are not mentioned by the antiquary, who may only have had eyes for things Roman. In about 1746-1747, Holbech remodelled the house by creating a Saloon, now the dining room, at the back of the house. This room, the entrance hall, the staircase, library and closet were stuccoed by William Perritt of York, and a bill for this work dated 14 November 1750 survives (or survived until recently; G. Beard, Decorative Plasterwork in Great Britain, London, 1975, p. 233). The two Canalettos acquired on the Grand Tour were installed in the Saloon, together with two new works commissioned from Canaletto, who was then in England and working nearby at Warwick Castle in 1748. The two Paninis acquired on the Grand Tour may have been installed in the Library, as Alastair Laing assumes (op. cit.), while three new works commissioned from Panini in Rome were placed in the Hall and Saloon: the Piazza S. Pietro for the overmantel in the Hall (fig. 1), the Campidoglio as the overmantel in the Saloon (fig. 2), and an Interior of St Peter's (now in Detroit) (fig. 3) on the adjacent wall facing the windows. Two of the Canalettos flanked the Campidoglio, while the others were on the opposite wall. The Interior of St Peter's was therefore effectively the fifth member of the Canaletto set, distinct from the two overmantels. Holbech's installation of his Canalettos and Paninis in fixed stucco frames was unusual for England in 1750, and had probably been inspired by what he had seen on his Grand Tour in Northern Italy, where fixed stucco installations of canvases were common in the 1720s and 1730s (Cornforth, II, p. 51). The Campidoglio and the Interior of St Peter's are both signed and dated 1750, a date that corresponds to the payments for the stucco. The commission for the new Paninis would have been made through an agent, possibly the Roman dealer in antiquities Belisario Amidei from whom some of the antique busts in the Hall were acquired in 1745, who was also a picture dealer; or perhaps the painter Pietro Berton, who on 7 December 1750 shipped a Panini to England. The paintings were sold to Savile Gallery in 1929 and replaced by copies by one Mohammed Ayoub. The four Canalettos were exhibited at Savile Gallery in 1930 and entered the London art trade, finding their way at various times to Augsburg, Melbourne, Ottawa and a private collection. The Paninis seem to have been resold immediately to Knoedler & Co. in New York. When the stucco was removed from the library by Holbech's great-grandson, another William Holbech, shortly after his succession in 1812, the Interior of the Pantheon and the Diverse Buildings may have been taken down. Although there is no record of either painting being at Farnborough subsequently, the Interior of the Pantheon at least must have remained there, since it appeared at Knoedler's in 1930 at about the same time as the other Paninis, and was presumably acquired at the same time from the same source. The Campidoglio was a rare subject for Panini: this is the only known extant version, apart from fictive versions in the Metropolitan Museum (1757) (figs. 4) and Louvre (1759) versions of his Roma Moderna composition (but not in the first Boston version of 1757). Probably Holbech insisted on the choice of subject in order to represent the centre of Rome's civic administration to complement the religious one of St Peter's. The Campidoglio may have been of interest to English patrons because it represented the seat of a form of government they were more comfortable with than the papacy. For example, Canaletto painted the subject, together with English subjects, for Thomas Hollis, 'the most bigoted of all Republicans' in 1755, who may have wanted to 'represent London as the heir to the legacy of Ancient Rome and Renaissance Italy' (see Michael Liversidge and Jane Farrington, eds., Canaletto and England, exhibition catalogue, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, London, 1993, p. 25). Canaletto also painted the subject for Sir Richard Neave, Ist Baronet (1731-1814) of Dagnam Park, Essex, at the end of his English stay or shortly afterwards (i.e. 1755-1766) (sold, Sotheby's, London, 10 July 2002, lot 8). Like Holbech, Neave mixed Venetian and Roman subjects, but his Roman subjects steer clear of St Peter's: the others were the Piazza del Quirinale and Piazza Navona. While Holbech had gone to both Venice and Rome and commissioned views of both cities, Rome sets the keynote for his decoration: antique busts line the Hall, and its religious and civic centres are the overmantels in the Hall and Saloon respectively. The Piazza S. Pietro The Piazza S. Pietro shows the piazza much as it appears today, apart from the absence of Valadier's late eighteenth-century clocks on the towers. Bernini's colonnade (1656-1667), both ends of which are visible, reaches out its arms to embrace the viewer. In the center of the piazza is the obelisk moved by Sixtus V in 1586 from the left side of the church where it had formed part of the Circus of Nero. On either side are two fountains, the one on the right by Carlo Maderno (1613) and the one on the left created to match it by Carlo Fontana in 1677. Beyond is the rectangular forecourt to the church, the piazza retta, leading to the façade by Maderno, completed in 1610, and the dome by Michelangelo, Giacomo della Porta and Domenico Fontana. To the right of the façade the roof of the Sistine Chapel is just visible, followed by the Cortile di S. Damaso, the palace of the Swiss Guards and the palace of Paul V. A Cardinal is being driven in a carriage across the piazza at the right in the direction of the Borgo Nuovo and Ponte S. Angelo with his blue-liveried retinue and subsidiary carriages. Unlike the later versions of the subject that depict the Duke de Choiseul, there seems to be no intent to portray any particular cardinal: the procession of a cardinal here is presented simply as characteristic activity within the piazza. Various groups of figures, including well-dressed women in brightly colored dresses, Swiss Guards, priests, gentlemen, idlers and a pilgrim are distributed around the piazza. In the foreground an imaginary heap of fallen masonry provides visual interest in an otherwise dead space. Panini painted the Piazza S. Pietro on a number of occasions, and his works falls into two types, one with the viewpoint shifted slightly to left of the axis, as in the Farnborough Hall version, and one with it shifted slightly to the right. The first type is based on a composition by Gaspar van Wittel, of which there are numerous versions from 1684 until 1721 (Fig. 9 van Wittel). The work by Panini that seems closest to Van Wittel and therefore probably the earliest is the version in the Circolo della Caccia, Rome, which has been dated to the second half of the 1730s, but is probably a decade or so earlier. Another, on the London art market in 2002-2009, and a version with workshop participation at Sotheby's, Milan (20 November 2007, lot 137) and currently on the art market in Rome, are closer to an important painting in Toledo (Arisi no. 308) that is signed and dated 1741 (fig. 6). Van Wittel employed a wide format (about 2:1), showed both of the end faces of the colonnade almost to their full extent, and introduced the theme of a heap of masonry to enliven the foreground. His choice of perspective implies a viewpoint located in the small piazza between the Borgo Nuovo and Borgo Vecchio, now the Piazza Pio XII at the top of the Via della Conciliazione. From this viewpoint a building at the left tended to interfere with the view of the end of the left arm, as can be seen from the Nolli map...

An antique 19th century Indonesian carved wooden panel from a temple entrance, with scrolling foliage. Only one of the panels in the photo is no...

Colorful 19th century French Majolica pear wall platter signed Longchamp terre de fer. The fruits are in high relief with the leaves and branches. The manufacture of Longchamp produc...

German Majolica Leaves Plate, circa 1890.

A French carved and painted wooden panel from the 19th century, with musical instruments. Created in France during the 19th century, this architectural panel features a grey painted textured ground adorned with a carved Allegory of the Liberal Arts symbolized by various musical instruments, set inside a molded frame topped with scrolling foliage. Boasting a nicely weathered patina, this 19th century French carved wooden panel...

French Majolica plate Onnaing Circa 1890. flowers and blackberries.

First the fragment has been hand backed on a linen fabric, then stretched over a wooden stretcher and finished with a wooden frame. Late 19th C. Ottoman Turkey Ready to go on a wall....

An antique carved teak architectural panel from the 19th century, with floral and foliage décor. This antique carved teak architectural panel from the 19th century captivates with it...

Wonderful print of a Chinese and Japanese plate Lithograph Published by A.Morel, Paris, France, circa 1860 Unframed.

Antique print titled 'Englisches Jagdpferd'. Lithograph of an English hunting horse by Karl Joseph Brodtmann (1787-1862), one of the most accomplished ...

Wonderful set of 12 architectural prints Copper-plate engravings after the original drawings by L.Carter Published by H. Hogg. Undated but the watermarks on the paper showing date...

Great image of woodpeckers. Unframed. It gives you the option of perhaps making a set up using your own choice of frames. Lithograph after Cpt. Brown with original hand color. Pub...

"Costume de Printemps – Elegant Early 19th-Century French Fashion Engraving" This finely detailed hand-colored engraving, titled Costume de Printemps, captures the refined eleganc...

French green Majolica leaves plate signed Montereau, circa 1890.

19th C. bas-relief panel which is a type of sculpture where the design in only slightly raised from the background surface, creating a shallow, low-relief effect. The relief depicts...

Wonderful print of St Susanna of Eleutheropolis Illuminated Chromolithograph Published circa 1880 Unframed. Free shipping The measurement is the paper size

Wonderful print of St Louis 1X Illuminated Chromolithograph Published circa 1880 Unframed. Free shipping The measurement is the paper size

Wonderful print of St Leo The Great Illuminated Chromolithograph Published circa 1880 Unframed. Free shipping The measurement is the paper size

Wonderful print of St Clotilde Illuminated Chromolithograph Published circa 1880 Unframed. Free shipping The measurement is the paper size

Wonderful print of the decoration found on an antique Chinese vase Lithograph Published by A.Morel, Paris, France. circa 1860 Unframed.  

Wonderful print of St Patrick Illuminated Chromolithograph Published circa 1880 Unframed. Free shipping The measurement is the paper size

Twenty framed steel engravings of English monarchs and rulers from Illustrations of English & Scottish History, by Thomas Archer. Published 1880 in Lo...

Great print of Boston Steel engraving after the original drawing by W.H Bartlett Published circa 1850 Unframed.   

Antique print titled 'Cheval Arabe'. Lithograph of an Arabian horse. This print originates from Dictionnaire Universel (..)'. Published circa 1850.

Large 19th century Majolica Palissy leaf wall fish & lobster platter Alfred Renoleau. Signed Polakowski & Cie, Roumazieres. Angouleme (France).

Great image of ostriches Unframed. It gives you the option of perhaps making a set up using your own choice of frames. Lithograph after Cpt. Brown with original hand color. ...

Great image of an Indian and a lesser two horn rhino Unframed. It gives you the option of perhaps making a set up using your own choice of frames. Lithograph after Cpt. brown with ...

Circa 19th century cast iron medallion / wall plaque depicting a portrait of King Charles IV of Spain and his family. The group portrait shows King Charles IV, Queen Maria Luisa of P...

English country side painting by Alfred A Waters (1849 - 1912 United Kingdom). Watercolor on paper. Late 19th century. Unframed.

Lovely Majolica plate with bird and insect, leaves signed Saint Amand, circa 1890.

Miniature framed portrait of a lady painted on porcelain An oak wooden frame with in oval placed porcelain plaque, painted with a scene of a lady w...

Pair of French Majolica Flowers Vases With Snails Choisy Le Roi, Circa 1890.

A gorgeous antique 19th-Century English majolica oyster plate, circa 1870-1890. This fine quality oyster plate has six wells with lovely soft shades of turquoise, blue, and lilac. It...

Lovely colorful French Majolica plate with flowers and acanthus leaves Orchies, circa 1890.

Majolica hazelnut plate signed Sarreguemines Majolica, circa 1870. Geometric pattern on the border.

Discover a work of rare elegance, now available on our site: a finely sculpted marble medallion from the renowned Wyon family, celebrated for their contributions to the art of medal-...

Great image of toucans Unframed. It gives you the option of perhaps making a set up using your own choice of frames. Lithograph after Cpt. brown with original hand color. Publishe...

Antique print titled 'Krater'. Color-printed large lithograph by Ernst Wasmuth depicting a Greek krater (ancient vase). This print originates from 'Griechische Keramik' by A. Genick. Albert Genick...

First the fragment has been hand backed on a linen fabric, then stretched over a wooden stretcher and finished with a wooden frame. Late 19th C. France / England Ready to go on a wal...

This oil on canvas is a meticulous reproduction of Giovanni Francesco Penni’s “Marriage of Cupid and Psyche” fresco (1517-18) from Villa Farnesina, Rome. Framed in an intricately car...

19th C. Swedish Carved Pine Wood Clock Grandmother Grandfather Long Case Antique . Freestanding hand carved pine wood clock with all the original mechanics and hardware , weights rack...

Fine and rare pair of antique Dutch Verre Églomisé reverse oil paintings on glass panels - featuring moody landscapes with a castle and church, having ...

Great image of whales and dolphins Unframed. It gives you the option of perhaps making a set up using your own choice of frames. Lithograph after Cpt. Brown, Gilpin and Edwards wit...

Pair of Elegant 19th Century Hand Painted French Boiserie Wall Panels. Panels are painted on canvas and later mounted on a board. Framed in simple white wooden frames. Each panel fea...

French Majolica oyster plate With lemon, Circa 1890.

Great image of a Herefordshire bull. Unframed. It gives you the option of perhaps making a set up using your own choice of frames. Lithograph with original hand color. Published 1...

Majolica plate with a pheasant in the woods signed Hippolyte Boulenger Choisy le Roi, circa 1890. The manufacture of Choisy le Roi was one of the most important manufacture at the e...

Sensational image by Gustave Doré Woodcut engraving Published C.1880 Unframed. Free shipping