A PAIR OF VERY RARE MARQUETRY MARRIAGE COMMODES

June 15 2009, 4:58pm

Venice. Circa 1690. These extraordinary commodes being only 68cm in height are a striking and unusual example of the Venetian marriage commode, as made at the end of the seventeenth century. Commodes closely related to these examples, of similar form and decorated with panels of scrolling foliate intarsia, are found among the great collections of Venice, but these appear to be the only pair known of this curious height. The present commodes are made more intriguing by the use of highly unusual decorative motifs such as the curious half-figures surmounting the corner uprights and the grotesque masks centring the drawers.