Object details
Accession number
F21n13
Primary Creator
Italian, Florence
Full title
Bench Chest with Back (Cassapanca con schienale)
Creation Date
late 19th century
Provenance
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the antique dealer Giuseppe Salvadori, Florence on 12 October 1906 for 1500 lire.
Dimensions
174 x 196 x 53.5 cm (68 1/2 x 77 3/16 x 21 1/16 in.)
Display Media
Walnut, poplar, and pine
Dimension Notes
Base: 15 x 209.4 x 86 cm (5 7/8 x 82 7/16 x 33 7/8 in.)
Web Commentary
This piece of furniture is an invention of the late 19th century, made to deceive unsuspecting collectors into thinking they were buying a Renaissance object. Most collectors, including Isabella Gardner, were taken in by these forgeries which combine Renaissance-era fragments with newer wood.
Permanent Gallery Location
Dutch Room
Bibliography
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston: 1935), p. 176. (Florence, early 16th century)
Fausto Calderai and Alan Chong. Furnishing a Museum: Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Collection of Italian Furniture (Boston: 2011), p. 205, no. 91. (dated as late 19th century with late 15th or 16th century elements)
Rights and reproductions
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