Emma Hawkins: A Natural World
Emma Hawkins: A Natural World
An Italian wax and tole model of a lemon, late 19th/early 20th century, attributable to Francis Garnier Valleti
Lot Closed
January 19, 03:35 PM GMT
Estimate
1,500 - 2,500 GBP
Lot Details
Description
An Italian wax and tole model of a lemon, late 19th/early 20th century, attributable to Francis Garnier Valleti
the attached wooden disc with inventory number 21
20.5cm. long
Kates Jacobs, ‘Bier Bones’, World of Interiors, December 2022, p. 103.
Related Literature:
Università degli Studi di Milano, La collezione Garner Valletti dell’Istituto di Collezioni Arboree, ed. Hoepli, Milan, 1998;
Ed. Umberto Allemandi & C, Il Museo della frutta, Turin, 1996.
Francesco Garnier-Valletti manufactured artificial fruits, exactly equal to real ones as to “shape, colour and weight” (so he wrote himself) so that he was estimated at the Courts of Milan, Vienna and St. Petersburg, where he stayed from 1840 to 1848; his reputation -together with his fruits- was appreciated and highly valued also in Antwerp and Amsterdam, where Prince Henry of Orange purchased some of his items. He received a large number of rewards – he was appointed Knight of the Order of the Crown by King Umberto I- and prizes, like as gilded silver medals at International and National Exhibitions. Eventually his named is related to the fruits collection he created at “Museo di Pomologia” (Fruits Museum), rightly founded for him in Turin with the aim of displaying and showing what was growing in the Royal agricultural estates of that time. His fruits also have got historical worth during a time when photography did not exist yet, an age which would attend the agricultural industrialization of the Piedmont region in the 1850's, through mono-cultivation that aimed at replacing traditional gardengrounds with a variety of different fruits: Garnier's fruits then help save up, in the course of time, memory of various types of fruits by identyfing in details all their subtle, minute, agronomical properties which can turn each fruit into a particular object to be looked at both from a scientific and artistic point of view. Garnier's fruits represent also a precious documentary evidence since they were exhibited in the newly started Museums or else in the typical Academies of the Nineteenth Century, thus giving hint to practical and agronomical teaching within the didactic trend of the age. Another interesting feature of the fruits is the material they are made of: a chemical formula (Dammar resin + Alabaster powder, later substituted with Chalk powder and ash + Greek wax and vergin wax) which was kept secret until his death, whose details he had learnt out of a dream – as he wrote on March 5th 1858; a formula which stated chalk and wax, so far being employed, old fashioned materials. A scientist as he felt, convinced that he might be useful to the agronomical progress of his country, he made such fruits, looking bright and glossy, depicting a rusty peel or a silky skin, combining different materials like fabrics or wire to create stalks, twigs and pips. Garnier's fruits all belong to a historical evidence of the past, nevertheless they inspire nowadays enchantment, fascination bewitchment through their scientific precision and their intrinsic beauty.
Università degli Studi di Milano, La collezione Garner Valletti dell’Istituto di Collezioni Arboree, ed. Hoepli, Milan, 1998;
Ed. Umberto Allemandi & C, Il Museo della frutta, Turin, 1996.
Francesco Garnier-Valletti manufactured artificial fruits, exactly equal to real ones as to “shape, colour and weight” (so he wrote himself) so that he was estimated at the Courts of Milan, Vienna and St. Petersburg, where he stayed from 1840 to 1848; his reputation -together with his fruits- was appreciated and highly valued also in Antwerp and Amsterdam, where Prince Henry of Orange purchased some of his items. He received a large number of rewards – he was appointed Knight of the Order of the Crown by King Umberto I- and prizes, like as gilded silver medals at International and National Exhibitions. Eventually his named is related to the fruits collection he created at “Museo di Pomologia” (Fruits Museum), rightly founded for him in Turin with the aim of displaying and showing what was growing in the Royal agricultural estates of that time. His fruits also have got historical worth during a time when photography did not exist yet, an age which would attend the agricultural industrialization of the Piedmont region in the 1850's, through mono-cultivation that aimed at replacing traditional gardengrounds with a variety of different fruits: Garnier's fruits then help save up, in the course of time, memory of various types of fruits by identyfing in details all their subtle, minute, agronomical properties which can turn each fruit into a particular object to be looked at both from a scientific and artistic point of view. Garnier's fruits represent also a precious documentary evidence since they were exhibited in the newly started Museums or else in the typical Academies of the Nineteenth Century, thus giving hint to practical and agronomical teaching within the didactic trend of the age. Another interesting feature of the fruits is the material they are made of: a chemical formula (Dammar resin + Alabaster powder, later substituted with Chalk powder and ash + Greek wax and vergin wax) which was kept secret until his death, whose details he had learnt out of a dream – as he wrote on March 5th 1858; a formula which stated chalk and wax, so far being employed, old fashioned materials. A scientist as he felt, convinced that he might be useful to the agronomical progress of his country, he made such fruits, looking bright and glossy, depicting a rusty peel or a silky skin, combining different materials like fabrics or wire to create stalks, twigs and pips. Garnier's fruits all belong to a historical evidence of the past, nevertheless they inspire nowadays enchantment, fascination bewitchment through their scientific precision and their intrinsic beauty.