AN ITALIAN MECCA AND BLUE PAINTED 'PEACOCK' CHAIR

This imaginative piece of 'fantasy furniture' is decorated with mecca (silvered gilt varnish) and an iridescent colour scheme to capture the brilliance and colourful eye patterns of the male peacock. It relates to similar examples produced in Florence towards the end of the 19th century by the workshop of Andrea Baccetti. For a suite of comparable 'Peacock' furniture see B. M. Newman and A. Duncan, Fantasy Furniture, New York, 1989, pp.38-39.