In the next auction of Furniture, Sculptures and Art Objects to be held on 17 May 2023 in Genoa in the new headquarters of Villa Carrega Cataldi, a series of objects will be presented which make us understand how the heterogeneous beauty of collecting can give the possibility of getting to know pieces of incredible charm and history.
Starting with a pair of twelve-light chandeliers in carved and gilded wood, metal and rock crystal, with chains and drop-shaped pendants (lots 5 and 6, both estimated at 3,000 – 4,000 euros), a small Genoese center table from the 18th century veneered in violet wood with alabaster top recessed within a shaped edge (lot 29, estimate 2,000 – 3,000 euros), and also from the city of the Lanterna a pair of corner chests of drawers veneered in violet wood and rosewood from the mid-eighteenth century, with shaped top and double-curved front (lot 40, estimate 20,000 – 30,000 euros). Connoisseur objects from a home that are collected from lots 1 to 40 with the suggestive title “The art of living”.
From the second session of the auction, a series of interesting lots from the collection of an Italian gentleman (101-195) which are characterized by a refined taste for 18th-19th century Grand Tour memorabilia such as a small 18th century Turin writing desk in wood various with a mixtilinear layout and three-dimensional geometric decoration (lot 136, estimate 2,000 – 3,000 euros), three sculptural groups depicting Moors, perhaps Indians from the Americas, in lacquered and gilded wood, probably Florentine from the 17th – 18th century (lot 150, estimate 4,000 – 6,000 euros). The fashion of representing Moorish figures, in vogue throughout Europe as well as in Italy, reaches its peak in its greatest interpretations, the Baroque ones, between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Extremely refined is a stove, perhaps made by a Nordic atelier, in white majolica decorated in chinoiserie with a large palm tree and oriental figure (lot 193, estimate 4,000 – 4,500 euros). Spectacular rectangular Roman table top worked in a geometric pattern from the 16th – 17th century in polychrome committed marble, with a large oval reserve in the center with stylized curly volutes (lot 195, estimate 10,000 – 15,000 euros).
The authentic protagonists of the catalog are a pair of Roman consoles from the third quarter of the 18th century in carved, sculpted and gilded wood from Palazzo Massimo di Rignano Colonna all’Ara Coeli (lot 196, estimate 40,000 – 60,000 euros). The extraordinary workmanship and the choice of using black marble from Aquitaine for the veneered tops are some of the details of these marvelous testimonies of that rapid transition from baroque to frivolous rocaille which took place in the Eternal City around the middle of the eighteenth century. A superbly crafted Trapani altar cross in coral, ivory, silver, gilded copper, mother-of-pearl and wood, made around 1750, perhaps attributable to the hand of Andrea Tipa (lot 197, estimate 20,000 – 30,000 euros).
From the collections of a connoisseur (308 – 328), a pair of late 18th century French tapestries from the Beauvais manufacture stands out with gallant and gender scenes within an oval with flowery garlands (lot 310, estimate 2,000 – 3,000 euros), and a pair of French double-doubles from the 18th-19th century in gilded bronze with the trunk of a column topped by a pine cone finial (lot 325, estimate 1,500 – 1,800 euros).