AN ITALIAN GILTWOOD GROTTO SOFA

This fantastical settee is an example of 'Grotto' furniture, so-called after the fashion for building whimsical shell-encrusted grottos from the early 17th century onwards. Almost certainly of Venetian origin, by the mid-19th century there were a number of workshops specialising in meccha (gilt-varnished silvered) shell furniture in Venice, of which Pauly et Cie. was perhaps the leading firm by the 1880s (B. M. Newman and A. Duncan, Fantasy Furniture, New York, 1989, p. 62).