An Italian inlaid folding table
Octagonal ebony and ebonised wood table with floral inlays of ivory, mother-of-pearl, and stained woods. Scroll supports with casters. Restored diagonal shrinkage crack. H 74, D 84 cm.
Florence, attributed to the Falcini Brothers manufactory, mid-19th C.
The Falcini family workshops were founded by Gaetano Giuseppe Falcini near Florence at the beginning of the 19th century. At the end of the 1820s, Luigi, the eldest son of the family (d. 1861), opened a shop in Florence, where his brother Angiolo (d. 1850) later worked. The Falcini brothers' first renowned work was an inlaid table, which was exhibited at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence in 1836, where it was awarded a prize and subsequently acquired by Grand Duke Leopold II for his private collection. The marquetry work of the two brothers was sensational and superbly executed. They based their craftsmanship on the model provided by the Florentine Opificio delle pietre dure, the stone-working workshops that supplied top quality to international patrons. In order to achieve similar results, they used colonial and local materials in highest qualities available. After the death of the two brothers, the company was continued in the same spirit by Angiolo's sons. The Falcini manufactory made its most famous appearance in 1851 at the Great Exhibition in London.
Provenance
Private collection, Rome.