Commode
manner of Gaspare Bassani (fl.1789)
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1790
Materials
Walnut, rosewood, tulipwood, sycamore, fruitwood, gilt brass
Measurements
88 x 120 x 57 cm
Place of origin
Parabiago
Order this imageCollection
Sizergh Castle, Cumbria
NT 997959
Summary
A rosewood, tulipwood, sycamore, fruitwood and walnut marquetry commode, North Italian, late 18th century. The inlay and marquetry to the top has been noted as of poorer quality than that elsewhere to the commode, and it is possible that it replaces a previous marble top. Of three drawers, the lower pair decorated as if one, with a roundel inlaid with a youthful flautist with sheep, between foliated scrolls. The top drawer decorated with flower-filled strapwork alternating with foliate saltires. The top decorated with a roundel displaying rustic trophies, the sides with central roundels of a figure, all within foliate marquetry and banded borders. Raised on four square-section tapering legs edged with chequer-banding and with gilt brass caps. Previously catalogued as by Giuseppe Maggiolini (1738 - 1814) of Parabiago, just outside Milan, but recent research by Giuseppe Beretti suggests that commodes like this were the product both of Maggiolini and one of his pupils, Gaspare Bassani, who had set up his own workshop in Milan by 1789, and who stamped his furniture 'GBM'. This commode at Sizergh bears a close resemblance to a pair attributed by Beretti to Bassani formerly in the Rosebery Collection at Mentmore and sold Sotheby's, 20th May 1977, Lot 828.
Provenance
Given by Henry Hornyold Strickland (1890 – 1975) with Sizergh Castle and its estates in 1950.
Makers and roles
manner of Gaspare Bassani (fl.1789), cabinetmaker manner of Giuseppe Maggiolini (1738 - 1814), cabinetmaker
References
Beretti 2005, Giuseppe Beretti, Laboratorio. Contribuiti alla storia del mobile neoclassico Milanese (Milan, 2005), pp. 92 - 105