Page 60 - Best Bid 7 | 2017

PANNELLO IN LEgNO
LACCATO ROssO NERO E ORO,

CINA, INIZIO DEL XIX sECOLO
A RED, BLACK AND gOLD

LAQuERED WOOD PANEL,
ChINA, EARLY XIX CENTuRY

a taste for the

orieNt

During the XVIII century, all of was inlaid with precious lacquers

Europe was attracted by the purchased by Juvarra himself in

lure of the East and China in Rome in 1732 and integrated with

particular. Entire rooms in almost some imitations by Piedmont

all the grand palaces and country artist Pietro massa. This taste

residences were decorated with for the exotic pervaded the

silk or rice paper wallpaper. This entire decoration, as shown for

was produced in China for the example, by the detailing on the

western market and exported top of a bureau mazarin by the

to London via the East India Piedmontese ebanist giuseppe

Company and from there all maria galbiati (private collection,

over Europe. Italy and Piedmont photo courtesy of Roberto

were no exception. In the mid- Antonetto) as well as the quantity

eighteenth century, Louis Victor of of oriental majolica, porcelain,

savoy, Prince of Carignano turned silvers and bronzes all imported

part the Castle of Racconigi into from the Orient or produced à la

the Chinese Apartment. The Chinoise in the West.

walls were entirely covered in

wallpaper purchased in London One famous heir to this taste,

in 1756, made from rice paper and which emerged between the

painted with scenes of daily life in seventeenth and eighteenth

watercolours. this taste for the exotic pervaded centuries and has been handed

down the centuries until today

The Roero di guarene archive (now the entire decoration thanks to the passion of patrons
a private collection) contains a and collectors, is of course Luigi

receipt from the muleteer Andrea Anton Laura, a well-known and

Viziano dated 10 June 1774 and attesting to the transport of passionate scholar and antique dealer who over the course of

some similar rolls of wallpaper in rice paper which arrived 60 years has assembled an extraordinarily varied collection of

from London to Nice by sea and then continued by mule from almost 6000 pieces. A selection of objects from the Orient or

Nice to the Castle of guarene where it remains on the walls in the Oriental style stands out among these. his collection

of the two Chinese rooms today. The large mounted panel was donated to the FAI to ensure it stays together, along

on auction, from the late eighteenth century, has a similar with Villa Laura on the Riviera di Ponente in Liguria which

decoration with riders and boats on the river and domestic provides a home for it and represents a precious source of

scenes. Another two types of wallpaper in vogue in the documentation for scholars of decorative arts.

eighteenth and nineteenth century were those decorated

with birds and insects or floral patterns. The collection we are presenting at auction is also extremely

varied and the result of the great passion of a well-known

Equally popular at the time were Chinese lacquers and the collector from Piedmont, as well as years of research and

Chinese Cabinet or the Room à la Chinoise at Turin’s Palazzo study. It ranges from China to Japan and from Thailand to

Reale is an one of the best examples of this trend. Architect Cambodia and Indonesia and represents a multifaceted and

Filippo Juvarra designed the carved and gilded boiserie which elegant vision of this western taste for the Orient.

58b 7.2017 highlights