Table. Bottega Giuseppe Maggiolini, 1798-1804
Description:
The small table is supported by four walnut legs, turned, fluted and crowned by a thinning with a collar inlaid in small leaves. The bundles of the legs are connected to the bands with small shelves inlaid with maple curl and are veneered in bois de violette with reserves in bois de rose. A small drawer is placed in one of the shorter bands. The geometrically subdivided top has four corner reserves at the corners, inlaid with floral motifs and a round reserve in the centre with two flowering cornucopias held by a ribbon. Veneered in bois de rose and violets, the top has dark guinea walnut reserve bottoms to highlight the warm colour of the maple, boxwood and other woods used for the inlay; a border with successive leaves encloses the central medallion.The small table is supported by four walnut legs, turned, fluted and crowned by a thinning with a collar inlaid in small leaves. The bundles of the legs are connected to the bands with small shelves inlaid with maple curl and are veneered in bois de violette with reserves in bois de rose. A small drawer is placed in one of the shorter bands. The geometrically subdivided top has four corner reserves at the corners, inlaid with floral motifs and a round reserve in the centre with two flowering cornucopias held by a ribbon. Veneered in bois de rose and violets, the top has dark guinea walnut reserve bottoms to highlight the warm colour of the maple, boxwood and other woods used for the inlay; a border with successive leaves encloses the central medallion.
Dimensions: 70 x 61.5 x 44 cm.
CODE: ANTATV0220142
Historical-critical analysis:
At the beginning of the 19th century, Giuseppe Maggiolini’s boutique was engaged in the production of numerous small game tables, so called ‘book-shaped’ or square wall tables with a folding top. The model of this small side table is rarer and finds its main comparisons in the 18th century’s production. Among the various examples, we point out the side table already published by Giuseppe Beretti in 1994 at Board XI, clearly richer in inlay than the one studied here. A small table probably made for ‘Brigati’, which again Giuseppe Beretti has recently studied and published, is worth mentioning. In this case, the two pieces of furniture are similar not only in shape and measurements but also in the choice of the flowered cornucopia motif embellishing the tops; a similar one but derived from two different designs.
Related to this small table there are two drawings of the Maggiolini Collection kept in the Gabinetto dei Disegni (Drawings Cabinet Depratment) of the Castello Sforzesco. The first, A 175, faithfully reproduces the inlaid leaf motif in the four corners. The most interesting, however, is the one used as a model for the two flowering cornucopias, B 440. The inscription in one corner of the sheet informs us that the same design was used for the sides of a kneeler, ‘Ginochiat.io / Mons.Ros.es’, probably the Archpriest of Milan Cathedral Monsignor Rosales, who died in Pavia in 1796 during Bonaparte’s siege. Verifications of the other drawings related to the design of the kneeler, remind of a piece of furniture of a fully 18th-century taste, with a rich decorative scheme that is not in the small table analysed here, which must therefore be placed in the later period.
Between the departure of the Archduke and the preparations for Napoleon’s arrival as King of Italy, the boutique experienced a period of transition. Maggiolini received fewer orders and those that did arrive did not have the economic availability that had characterised earlier productions, consequently the furniture models, like the designs, were often salvaged from older projects. Also missing, due to the ongoing war, is the great variety of woods that was the pride of the Parabiago workshop. Another aspect to consider is the change in taste that the onset of the new Empire style would impose throughout Europe. Maggiolini never fully embraced this new proposal and never abandoned wood marquetry, but his furniture began to shed the prestigious decoration that characterised them in the Ferdinandean period. For this reason, this small table is believed to have been made between these two centuries.
Bibliography:
-Giuseppe Beretti-Alvar Gonzalez Palacios, Giuseppe Maggiolini Catalogo ragionato dei disegni, ed. inlimine2014;
-Giuseppe Beretti, Giuseppe Maggiolini, l’Officina del Neoclassicismo, 1994 Edizioni libreria Malavasi;
https://www.in-opera.eu/opere/un-tavolino-per-brigati-nel-1798/
- Table, Bottega Giuseppe Maggiolini, 1798-1804
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