H. Blairman & Sons Ltd

Carved and manufactured by Gaetano Gosi (circa 1835-92)

and Angelo Querci (1838-circa 1900)

Walnut, parcel-gilt; the interior lined with red velvet

38 x 50 x 30 cm

Italian (Siena), third quarter of nineteenth century

‘GOSI e QUERCI’ (on the proper right end)

Gosi and Querci were both pupils of Pietro Giusti (1822-78), who carved the casket, dated 1857, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is based on the cassone by Antonio Barli (1453-1516), now in the Museo Civici, Siena; see H. Blairman & Sons, Furniture and Works of Art (1997), no. 12.

Querci, in conjunction with another Giusti pupil Arturo Guidi (1844-1911), carved a small frame now at the Château de Blois; see Château de Blois sept ans d’acquisitions (1992-1999), no. 81.

For biographies of Gosi and Querci see Simone Chiarugi, Botteghe di Mobilieri in Toscana 1780-1900, 1994, I, p. 492 and p. 530.