AN ITALIAN MOTHER-OF-PEARL AND IVORY-INLAID, SYCAMORE MARQUETRY, AND ROSEWOOD CENTRE TABLE

The present table top, with its distinctive marquetry decoration, can be attributed to Luigi and Angelo Falcini, Florentine specialists of marquetry furniture active from 1830-1860. Similar to much of their known work, the design and quality of the ivory and mother-of-pearl inlay on the present example recalls the oeuvre of the Flemish-born Leonardo van der Vinne (d. 1713), who had played an active role in the Medici's Opificio delle Pietre Dure.

The workshops of the Falcini family were established in the early 19th century in the village of Campi, near Florence, by Gaetano Giuseppe Falcini (d. 1846). In the late 1820s, Luigi, the latter's eldest son (d. 1861), opened a bottega in the via del Fosso, Florence, and was later joined by his brother Angelo (d. 1850). The first piece to be exhibited by the Falcini brothers was a prize-winning marquetry table shown at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence in 1836, and subsequently purchased by Grand Duke Leopold II for his private collection. The firm continued to exhibit at the Academy throughout the 1840s and completed important commissions for a number of prominent patrons, among which included Prince Anatole Demidoff, the Duchess of Castigliano and Countess Borghese. After the death of Angelo Falcini in 1850, Luigi was joined by his two sons, Alessandro and Cesare, who continued the business until 1882.

Two related tables - each with tops inlaid to the angles with flower-filled cornucopia, one having a central reserve centred by a bird, the other with a floral bouquet, as here - were formerly at the Villa Demidoff, Pratolino, and are now in the collection of the Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Florence (illustrated S. Chiarugi, Botteghe di Mobilieri in Toscana: 1780-1900, Florence, 1994, vol. I, p. 194, cat. 241-2). An additional table with a similar top was sold Sotheby's, London, 6 December 2006, lot 137.