Royal House
Antiques
Royal House Antiques is delighted to offer for sale this very rare Finely
Carved Venetian Baroque Style Figural Walnut Throne settee or bench, attributed
to Valentino Panciera Besarel (Venice, 1829-1902) in the manner of Andrea
Brustolon (1662-1732).
This piece is in simply amazing condition
throughout, it’s a very early model
This impressive carved walnut throne settee has a
raked padded back above a stuffed over seat. The arms are carved to the elbow
with recumbent putti figures looking skyward, carved almost in the round and
supported by foliate sprays. The exuberantly carved neoclassical figures
supporting the carved foliage arms are simply works of art, the side stretchers
carved with scrolls meeting at the centre in a cartouche.
The vigorous Baroque style of carving echoes the
style of Andrea Brustolon (1662–1732), an important sculptor and wood carver
who made furniture for many of the great Venetian Palaces.
In terms of condition the timber has been lightly
cleaned hand condition waxed and hand polished, the leather upholstery is fine
Italian heritage hide, we have had in leather polished to the deep cigar brown colour.
Dimensions
Height:- 106.5cm
Width:- 143cm
Depth:- 83cm
Please note all measurements are taken at the
widest point, if you would like any additional or specific measurements please
ask
Andrea Brustolon (20 July 1662 – 25 October
1732) was an Italian sculptor in wood. He is known for his furnishings in
the Baroque style and devotional sculptures.
Biography
He was trained in a vigorous local tradition of
sculpture in his native Belluno, in the Venetian terraferma, and in the studio
of the Genoese sculptor Filippo Parodi, who was carrying out commissions at
Padua and at Venice (1677). He spent the years 1678-80 at Rome, where the High
Baroque sculpture of Bernini and his contemporaries polished his style. Apart
from that, the first phase of Brustolon's working career was spent in Venice,
1680–1685. Brustolon is documented at several Venetian churches where he executed
decorative carving in such profusion that he must have quickly assembled a
large studio of assistants. As with his contemporary in London, Grinling
Gibbons almost all the high quality robust Baroque carving in Venice has been
attributed to Brustolon at one time or another. In the Venetian Ghetto, at the
Scola Levantina, Brustolon provided the woodwork for the synagogue on the piano
nobile, where the carved, canopied bimah is supported on Solomonic columns,
which Brustolon had seen in Bernini's baldacchino in the Basilica of St
Peter's.
His furniture included armchairs with figural
sculptures that take the place of front legs and armrest supports, inspired by
his experience of Bernini's Cathedra Petri. The gueridon, a tall stand for a
candelabrum, offered Brustolon unhampered possibilities for variations of the
idea of a caryatid or atlas: the familiar Baroque painted and ebonized
blackamoor gueridons, endlessly reproduced since the eighteenth century, found
their models in Brustolon's work.
His secular commissions from Pietro Venier, of the
Venier di San Vio family (a suite of forty sculptural pieces that can be seen
in the Sala di Brustolon of the Ca' Rezzonico, Venice), from the Pisani of
Strà, and from the Correr di San Simeone families encourage the attribution to
him of some extravagantly rich undocumented moveable furniture. Andrea
Brustolon's elaborate carved furniture aspired towards the condition of
sculpture, such as the Dutch bases for console tables which look like
enlargements of the work of the two Van Vianens, Paulus and Adam, perhaps the
greatest Dutch silversmiths of the period. These carved pieces display the
baroque tendency to develop a form three-dimensionally in space.
Brustolon's walnut, boxwood and ebony pieces
transcend ordinary functional limitations of furniture; they are constructed of
elaborately carved figures. The framework of Brustolon's chairs, side tables
and gueridons were carved as gnarled tree branches, with further supports of
putti and moors carved in ebony. Backrests of the chairs, which were never
touched in the rigidly upright posture that contemporary etiquette demanded,
were carved with allegories of vanity, fire and music, etc.
The most extravagant piece delivered for Pietro
Venier was a large side table and vase-stand of box and ebony, designed as a
single ensemble to display rare imported Japanese porcelain vases. The eclectic
allegories include Hercules with the Hydra and Cerberus, moors and reclining
river-gods (see ref.).
For the Correr, less extrovert chairs bear female
nudes extended along the armrests. For the Pisani, he carved a suite of twelve
chairs (now at the Palazzo Quirinale) with flowers, fruit, leaves and branches
to symbolize the twelve months of the year. Work by Brustolon is at the Villa
Pisani at Stra.
In 1685 Brustolon returned to the house where he
was born at Belluno, and from that time devoted himself mainly to tabernacles
and devotional sculptures in walnut, boxwood or ivory. His polychromed ivory
Corpus from a crucifix is in the Museo Civico di Belluno, which preserves some
of Brustolon's preparatory drawings for frames to be carved with putti
displaying emblems. A pair of boxwood sculptures, The Sacrifice of Abraham and
Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, integral with scrolling barocchetto stands,
were in the collection of Justus Liebig (Liebigshaus, Frankfort). An
altarpiece, c. 1720, is at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
He died in Belluno in 1732.
Valentino Panciera Besarel (1829-1902) was
Andrea Brustolon's great heir of the Nineteenth Century in wood carving; he
presented himself as Brustolon's natural successor and alter ego. He studied
from 1855 to 1857 in Venice and his career developed the most in there and in
Belluno, although it was also turned to countries beyond the Alps. He applied
in furniture and in ecclesiastical and secular decoration, showing his talents
in furniture and frames making.
References:
Catalogue by Massimo de Grassi, Valentino Panciera
Besarel, Verona, 2002) and was the subject of a monograph, Giovanni Angelini,
Gli Scultori Panciera Besarel (Belluno 2002).
Biasuz G., and Buttignon M.G., 1969. Andrea
Brustolon (Istituto Veneto Arti Grafiche) 1969
Gonzales-Palacios, Alvar, 1967. Il mobilio del '700
veneto
Semenzato, G., 1967. La scultura veneta del
Seicento e del Settecento (Turin: Alfieri)
Valcanover, F., 1960. Indice delle opere d'arte
della città e provincia di Belluno (Venice)
Biasuz, G., and E. Lacchin, 1928. Brustolon,
preface by U. Ometti (Venice: Zanetti)
Any questions please feel
free to ask before you bid.
ABOUT US
Royal House Antiques is a privately owned family
ran business founded in Wimbledon SW19 and now based in Pulborough RH20. We
specialise in finding, restoring very fine luxury antique leather seating,
along with every single other type of antique ranging from the 16th
century to the 20th century. We also stock a number of designer
brands such as Fritz Hansen, Ralph Lauren, Cavalli, Charles & Ray Eames,
Vitra, David Linley, Rolex, Tiffany, Jager Le Coulter and so on
PAYMENTS
We accept payment via Bitcoin, Bitcoin cash,
Ethereum, Bacs, Chaps, PayPal or Card, we would kindly ask that all items are
paid for within 48 hours and collected within 7 working days, we can hold all
paid items for 14 days free of charge, there after a £20 a week storage fee
will apply. We have long term storage which is very economically priced, we are
happy to hold stock for as long as needed providing it is arranged prior to the
purchase
If sold items aren’t collected within three months
and no arrangements have been made for long term storage you will forfeit the
item and payment
CONDITION
Please view the very detailed pictures as
they form part of the description pertaining to the condition. Please also ask any questions before you bid
and not after, all of our items are sold as seen and as listed
Royal House Antiques cannot be held liable for any
independent assumptions made regarding the items we sell, if you are unsure on
any point, please feel free to ask for clarity
Please note vintage period and original items such
as leather seating will always have natural patina in the form of creasing and
wear, we recommend annual waxing to ensure no moisture is lost, also hand dyed
leather is not recommended to sit in direct sunlight for prolonged periods of
time as it will dry out and fade
DELIVERY OR COLLECTION
This item is available for collection from our Pulborough
warehouses RH20-1DF by appointment only, alternatively we can have it delivered
nationwide to include Scotland, Wales and Ireland for a fee
Please contact me via email, alternatively my
contact information is under the business seller section of the listing, with
your postcode for a delivery quotation, as mentioned above the fee listed
covers with the M25 for the UK, for international deliveries the amount listed
covers local Europe only so parts of Belgium and France
Please be sure to include which item you would like
to buy as the price is determined on size and distance, if you would like more
than one piece of furniture the courier offers a substantial discount on the
second and third item, for international shipping please view the below
information
COURIER, LARGE ITEMS ONLY THAT CAN’T BE POSTED
We can arrange delivery nationwide, mostly with our
nominated couriers, for Europe we use one reasonably priced professional company
that we trust, for the rest of the world we use international shippers that can
send any size item crated via air freight within 7-14 days after crating or
soft packed and container shipped via sea freight within 30-60 days. The time
frames outlined are guides only, non-domestic shipping is almost entirely
governed by the airlines, sea freight loading times and custom clearances
Whomever delivers will always require help on the
larger items to unload, the price you will be quoted will always be based on
this assumption, if this is not possible, please let us know as it will affect
the price to send a two-person team
Delivery is to the ground floor only, again if you
need help upstairs or in flats etc that's absolutely not a problem, the
couriers charge £10-£20 per flight per man per item, if you have a working
elevator then naturally there’s no additional fee
All courier fees are paid by yourself directly to
the courier company, the contract for delivery is between yourselves the client
and whichever courier you chose from those available I’m happy to accommodate
your own courier after a cleared payment has been received, they need to book
in a collection time with at least 24 hours notice, all collections must be
made within 14 working days of the close of the sale unless agreed by prior
arrangement
IMPORT DUTY
Most countries charge some kind of import duty
however almost all of our items won’t incur any charges as the items are exempt
from tax due to the age and materials used
For European deliveries the price you will be
quoted will include all clearance documentation and any customs charges so
there won’t be any additional fees
For international deliveries such as the United
States there can be some import duty to pay and or a clearance fee, I would
estimate that 99% of all deliveries clear customs without being stopped for
either
All duties are the responsibility of the purchaser
who is the importer, they can’t be covered by the seller or shipping agent or
factored in with additional retrospective discounts
RETURNS
Royal House Antiques offers a no quibble return
policy if the item is not as described, if there are any issues with the piece
you will be refunded in full once the item has been returned and inspected
within 14 days, alternatively if there is a small issue, we can discuss finding
a mutual resolution that makes all parties happy
We don’t offer a sale on approval service which
means you can purchase the item, have it delivered and if you simply don’t like
it, return it, this comes under change of mind or doesn’t fit. There is a lot
of time, money and work involved in transporting goods around the world, the
costs incurred can be vast so my advice would be if you are unsure on a piece
please ask as many questions as you like to make sure you understand everything
before you buy, if you are still unsure then please either arrange a viewing in
person or if that’s not possible then don’t buy from an online retailer,
perhaps look for a local gallery instead