A PAIR OF NORTH ITALIAN WHITE-PAINTED AND PARCEL-GILT BENCHES

The unusual scrolled decoration on these boldly carved stools is related to similar motifs found on a set of seventeen stools carved by the intagliatore Paolo Canavesi and decorated by the gilder Giovanni Zampori in 1835 for the Throne Room of the Palazzo Ducale of Parma, after a design by the court architect Paolo Gazzola. This set of stools is now in the Galleria Nazionale, Parma, and one is illustrated in E. Colle, Il Mobile Impero In Italia, Milan, 1998, p. 342, pl. 113.