Bench Chest with Back (Cassapanca con schienale)
furniture maker
Unknown
Datelate 19th century
Place MadeFlorence, Tuscany, Italy, Europe
MediumWalnut, poplar, and pine
Dimensions174 x 196 x 53.5 cm (68 1/2 x 77 3/16 x 21 1/16 in.)
ClassificationsFurniture
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberF21n13
eMuseum ID729711
Previous Number635
EmbARK ObjectID14483
TMS Source ID3265
Last Updated8/14/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryThis 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.
BibliographyNotesGilbert 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)
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)
ProvenanceNotesPurchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the antique dealer Giuseppe Salvadori, Florence on 12 October 1906 for 1500 lire.
