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An important Italian Baroque ormolu mounted pietra dura inlaid ebony casket Attributed to the Grand Ducal Workshops, Florence, and probably under the direction of the sculptor Giovanni Battista Foggini, early 18th century image 1
An important Italian Baroque ormolu mounted pietra dura inlaid ebony casket Attributed to the Grand Ducal Workshops, Florence, and probably under the direction of the sculptor Giovanni Battista Foggini, early 18th century image 2
An important Italian Baroque ormolu mounted pietra dura inlaid ebony casket Attributed to the Grand Ducal Workshops, Florence, and probably under the direction of the sculptor Giovanni Battista Foggini, early 18th century image 3
An important Italian Baroque ormolu mounted pietra dura inlaid ebony casket Attributed to the Grand Ducal Workshops, Florence, and probably under the direction of the sculptor Giovanni Battista Foggini, early 18th century image 4
An important Italian Baroque ormolu mounted pietra dura inlaid ebony casket Attributed to the Grand Ducal Workshops, Florence, and probably under the direction of the sculptor Giovanni Battista Foggini, early 18th century image 5
An important Italian Baroque ormolu mounted pietra dura inlaid ebony casket Attributed to the Grand Ducal Workshops, Florence, and probably under the direction of the sculptor Giovanni Battista Foggini, early 18th century image 6
An important Italian Baroque ormolu mounted pietra dura inlaid ebony casket Attributed to the Grand Ducal Workshops, Florence, and probably under the direction of the sculptor Giovanni Battista Foggini, early 18th century image 7
An important Italian Baroque ormolu mounted pietra dura inlaid ebony casket Attributed to the Grand Ducal Workshops, Florence, and probably under the direction of the sculptor Giovanni Battista Foggini, early 18th century image 8
An important Italian Baroque ormolu mounted pietra dura inlaid ebony casket Attributed to the Grand Ducal Workshops, Florence, and probably under the direction of the sculptor Giovanni Battista Foggini, early 18th century image 9
An important Italian Baroque ormolu mounted pietra dura inlaid ebony casket Attributed to the Grand Ducal Workshops, Florence, and probably under the direction of the sculptor Giovanni Battista Foggini, early 18th century image 10
An important Italian Baroque ormolu mounted pietra dura inlaid ebony casket Attributed to the Grand Ducal Workshops, Florence, and probably under the direction of the sculptor Giovanni Battista Foggini, early 18th century image 11
An important Italian Baroque ormolu mounted pietra dura inlaid ebony casket Attributed to the Grand Ducal Workshops, Florence, and probably under the direction of the sculptor Giovanni Battista Foggini, early 18th century image 12
Lot 28*,○

An important Italian Baroque ormolu mounted pietra dura inlaid ebony casket
Attributed to the Grand Ducal Workshops, Florence, and probably under the direction of the sculptor Giovanni Battista Foggini, early 18th century

Amended
Cornelis Paulus van Pauwvliet: An Important Dutch Collection
21 November 2023, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £165,500 inc. premium

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An important Italian Baroque ormolu mounted pietra dura inlaid ebony casket

Attributed to the Grand Ducal Workshops, Florence, and probably under the direction of the sculptor Giovanni Battista Foggini, early 18th century
The five pietra dura panels each inlaid with lapis lazuli, Siena and other hardstone and marble foliate scrolls issuing flowers, including tulips and carnations mounted with a polished slate ground and framed with an ormolu moulding, the corners of the hinged cover mounted with pierced acanthus scroll cartouches, the pietra dura panels to the sides further framed with trailing foliate scrolls, the angles mounted with acanthus scrolls headed with bellflowers and raised on ormolu scroll feet, the interior opening to reveal a walnut lined compartment, with key, 31cm wide, 41cm deep, 27cm high (12in wide, 16in deep, 10 1/2in high)

Footnotes

Provenance
Private European Collection.
Kollenburg Antiquairs BV, where purchased 6 July 2020.

Exhibition
Kollenburg Antiquairs BV, TEFAF Maastricht, 2020.

Related Literature
Wolfram Koeppe and Annamaria Giusti, Art of The Royal Court, Treasures in Pietre Dure from the Palaces of Europe, exhibition catalogue, The Metropolitam Museum of Art, New York, July-September 2008, Yale University Press, New Haven, n.54; Jewellery box, pp.198-199.
Alvar Gonzàlez-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto, Milan, 2000, pp.467-493.
Alvar Gonzàlez-Palacios, Las Colecciones Reales Espanolas de Mosaicos y Piedra Duras, exhibition catalogue, Museo Nacional del Prado, pp.107-118.
Simon Swynfen Jervis, Pietre Dure Caskets in England, Furniture History Society, XLIII, 20079, pp.245-265.
Annamaria Giusti, Pietre Dure and the Art of Florentine Inlay, London, 2006, n.64, p.83.

This magnificent Florentine casket, richly mounted with superb pietra dura panels can be firmly attributed to the Grand Ducal workshops, and was most probably made under the supervision of Giovanni Battista Foggini (1652-1725), who was director of the workshops under Duke Cosimo III (1670-1723). The spectacular creations of the Galleria dei Lavori, which was originally founded by Ferdinand I Medici in 1588, were admired in all the courts of Europe, and were often offered as diplomatic gifts by the Medici. Louis XIV even consciously tried to create his own version of the Galleria dei Lavori as he imported Italian craftsmen such as Domenico Cucci when he founded the Gobelins workshops in 1667.

Foggini played a remarkably active role as director of the Medici workshops, supervising every detail of the works of art produced. This is demonstrated by a fascinating series of drawings by him in the Giornale of the workshops, for caskets and gilt-bronze mounts, executed towards the end of his career (circa 1713-1718), now in the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe in the Uffizi, Florence (see González-Palacios, op. cit.,vol. I, pp. 41-4, and vol. II, pp. 54-60, figs. 57-77).

A comparable Baroque Florentine pietra dura (in relief) and gilt bronze mounted ebony jewel casket was sold at Bonhams, San Francisco, Fine European Furniture and Decorative Arts, 28 October 2013, lot 1519 and another casket also attributed as coming from the Grand Ducal workshops in Florence, was sold at Sotheby's, Milan, A Milanese Cabinet Collection, 13 June 2016, lot 36 as well as the ebony veneered and pietra dura inlaid casket at the Royal Collection acquired by George IV, collection number 11895 and a jewellery box attributed to Giovanni Battista Foggini held at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, collection number 777 on view in gallery 310.

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