Seat from a Gig (Sedia per Calesse)
furniture maker
Unknown
Dateearly 18th century
Place MadeVenice, Veneto, Italy, Europe
MediumPainted and gilded walnut
Dimensions100 x 88.7 x 45 cm (39 3/8 x 34 15/16 x 17 11/16 in.)
ClassificationsFurniture
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberF25n13
eMuseum ID721152
EmbARK ObjectID12093
TMS Source ID1241
Last Updated8/14/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryThis elegant chair was made for a gig, a light two-wheeled carriage for one person. Surviving detached gig seats are sometimes erroneously called gondola chairs. Indeed, it was called this by Isabella Gardner. According to Morris Carter, the museum’s first director, she was carried around her museum in it after being paralyzed by a stroke in 1919. Its Asian figures in landscapes, accompanied by flowers and shell motifs of applied and painted pastiglia on a deep red ground, are characteristic of Venetian furniture made to imitate Chinese lacquer.
BibliographyNotesGilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston: 1935), p. 202. (Italian, 18th century)
Geoffrey de Bellaigue. Furniture, Clocks, and Gilt Bronzes: The James A. Rothschild Collection at Wadesdon Manor (Fribourg, 1974), p. 666.
Alexandra Libby and Stanton Thomas. Venice in the Age of Canaletto. Exh. cat. (Sarasota: The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, 2009), pp. 142-43, no. 38.
Fausto Calderai and Alan Chong. Furnishing a Museum: Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Collection of Italian Furniture (Boston: 2011), pp. 220-23, no. 99.
Geoffrey de Bellaigue. Furniture, Clocks, and Gilt Bronzes: The James A. Rothschild Collection at Wadesdon Manor (Fribourg, 1974), p. 666.
Alexandra Libby and Stanton Thomas. Venice in the Age of Canaletto. Exh. cat. (Sarasota: The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, 2009), pp. 142-43, no. 38.
Fausto Calderai and Alan Chong. Furnishing a Museum: Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Collection of Italian Furniture (Boston: 2011), pp. 220-23, no. 99.
ProvenanceNotesPurchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the antiques dealers Moisè Dalla Torre and Co., Venice on 20 September 1899 for 200 lire.
