A pair of Italian giltwood angle wall-appliques, Genoa, circa 1750

RELATED LITERATURE

G.Morazzoni, Il mobile genovese, Milan, 1949.

G Morazzoni, Il mobile genovese, Milan, 1962.

L. Canonero, Barocchetto genovese, Milan, 1962.

AA.VV. II Palazzo Durazzo Pallavicini, Bologne, 1995.

L. Tagliaferro, La magnificenza privata, Gênes, 1995.

A. Gonzales-Palacios, Il mobile in Liguria, Gênes, 1996.

In a similar manner to the Genovese appliques featured in Part I of this collection (lot 28), the most interesting feature of these wall lights is in the right-angled backs, suggesting that they were intended for the corner of a room. In the palazzi and villas for which mirrors like this one were conceived, the cavernous proportions of the formal rooms meant that plentiful, well-designed lighting fixtures were essential in creating a pleasant ambiance. Occasionally, this would include creatively illuminating corners – for example, in the Palazzo Spinola di Pellicceria in the historical centre of Genoa, some playful dragon-form wall lights that are similarly fitted into the corners can be seen in the eighteenth-century Salon of the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche (ill. E. Gavazza et al, Pittura e decorazione a Genova e in Liguria nel Settecento, Genoa, 2000, fig. 346). A richly-carved corner girandole from the same Rococo period as the present lot was also pictured in L. Canonero, Barocchetto Genovese, Milan, 1962, pl. VIII.

While the contemporary appliques featured as lot 28 in the Part I of the Giordano Collection used mirror plates to amplify the candlelight, these wall lights use hanging drops of faceted rock crystal. Rock crystal, sometimes unclearly referred to by the polysemous name ‘crystal’, is a type of quartz (silicon dioxide) that is transparent and colourless. Quartz is not in itself a rare mineral, forming a constituent part of granite and therefore also sand, but the large, pure crystals that create the likes of amethysts and rock crystal are far scarcer. Like glass, rock crystal was commonly incorporated into furniture with a lighting function such as chandeliers and candlesticks due to its reflective properties. Another example of an eighteenth-century wall light from Genoa incorporating rock crystal sold at Christie’s London, 19 September 2019, lot 176.