£3,000
Five Centuries: Furniture, Paintings & Works of Art | 689
Auction: Five Centuries: Furniture, Paintings & Works of Art
the shaped mirrored top above two further mirrored tiers with mirrored backs, raised and divided by fluted columns with foliate capitals, the frame with applied gilt gesso shell motifs, scrolls, and flowers, stencil maker's stamp to the reverse C. NOSOTTI/ MAKER GLASS MIRROR FURNITURE/ 397.398 OXFORD ST. 399.399/ ESTD 1822
Note: Charles Andrea Nosotti is listed as a carver, gilder, upholsterer and cabinetmaker at 2 Dean Street, Soho, from 1835-1840, although he appears to have set up a 'looking glass manufactory' in 1831. Almost certainly born in Milan, his high standard of workmanship led him to exhibit a giltwood cabinet at the 1862 London Exhibition that he had made for the Countess of Waldegrave's drawing room at Strawberry Hill. The cabinet is illustrated in J. Meyer, Great Exhibitions 1851-1900, London, 2006, p.167. Further commissions came from the millionaire industrialist John Allcroft at Stokesay Court, Shropshire. Nosotti advertised furniture in the Art Journal Catalogue of the International Exhibition, 1867, noting that his firm enjoyed the patronage of the Princess of Wales. He later collaborated with the leading Victorian makers Howard and Sons and this piece certainly has the hallmarks of this collaboration.
A comparable piece was sold at Sotheby's lot 136 28 August 1994
Literature: Graham Child, World Mirrors 1650-1900, p.22
J. Meyer, Great Exhibitions 1851-1900, London, 2006, p.167.