Antique Italian Lombardy Marquetry Hall Bench Settle Late 18th Century

This is a wonderful antique Italian Renaissance Revival walnut, specimen wood and marquetry decorated cassapanca or hall bench, made in Lombardy Italy and Circa 1780 in date.

It is smothered in the most wonderful carved panels with fabulous inlaid marquetry decoration with fruit wood and bone inlaid marquetry panels depicting communal and hunting scenes.

It has a hinged seat allowing access to the storage box below, and is raised on wonderful scroll feet

Condition:

In excellent original condition having only been cleaned and waxed in our workshops, please see photos for confirmation.

Dimensions in cm:

Height 115 x Width 155 x Depth 60

Dimensions in inches:

Height 3 foot, 9 inches x Width 5 feet, 1 inch x Depth 2 feet

Marquetry

is decorative artistry where pieces of material (such as wood, mother of pearl, pewter, brass silver or shell) of different colours are inserted into surface wood veneer to form intricate patterns such as scrolls or flowers.

The technique of veneered marquetry had its inspiration in 16th century Florence. Marquetry elaborated upon Florentine techniques of inlaying solid marble slabs with designs formed of fitted marbles, jaspers and semi-precious stones. This work, called opere di commessi, has medieval parallels in Central Italian "Cosmati"-work of inlaid marble floors, altars and columns. The technique is known in English as pietra dura, for the "hardstones" used: onyx, jasper, cornelian, lapis lazuli and colored marbles. In Florence, the Chapel of the Medici at San Lorenzo is completely covered in a colored marble facing using this demanding jig-sawn technique.

Techniques of wood marquetry were developed in Antwerp and other Flemish centers of luxury cabinet-making during the early 16th century. The craft was imported full-blown to France after the mid-seventeenth century, to create furniture of unprecedented luxury being made at the royal manufactory of the Gobelins, charged with providing furnishings to decorate Versailles and the other royal residences of Louis XIV. Early masters of French marquetry were the Fleming Pierre Golle and his son-in-law, André-Charles Boulle, who founded a dynasty of royal and Parisian cabinet-makers (ébénistes) and gave his name to a technique of marquetry employing shell and brass with pewter in arabesque or intricately foliate designs.

Our reference: A2218