Rara ed importante specchiera in legno intagliato... Lot n° 184

cm 140x60x294 Exceptional mirror with elegant Rococo shapes masterfully integrated with figures of herons and birds of prey within elaborate .... rocaille, reserves and niches leafy and floral that seem to intertwine and merge with their severe structures, in the shimmering forms of green crystal modeled in curls and leaves among which stand out trees and blown glass jars. Rare and important console table in carved wood, gilded and engraved in "Boems style" crystal and green blown glass. Venice mid-eighteenth century. Workshop of Giuseppe Lorenzo Briati (1686-1772). Exceptional wall-mounted table with a lacquered top, edge and pocket underneath shaped and carved with volutes and reserves resting on shaped legs with inclusions of shaped and domed green crystal. Giuseppe Lorenzo Briati (1686-1772) and the "All'Angelo Raffaeli" furnace. Giuseppe Lorenzo Briati is to be considered one of the most important and famous Venetian glass masters of the 18th century; so says Girolamo Zanetti on page 83 in his writings "Dall'origine di alcune arti principali presso i veneziani" (Venice 1758): "In our days, however, with a new and necessary example, we see some of those furnaces in the parish of Angiolo Rafaello set up in our city, where marvellous and celebrated works of the finest crystal come out of the hands of the talented Briati, who has created chairs, weapons, frames, fruit, flowers, statues and a thousand other vague and ingenious works that have now become the delight of all cultured nations". Briati, who had initially set up his business in Murano, was allowed to move to Venice, as an exception to the laws that prohibited the use of furnaces within the city. In consideration of his exceptional skills in the art of glassmaking and also to protect the laughing rivalry that his Murano colleagues nurtured towards him, so in 1739 he moved to the Contrada del Carmine, on what is now Fondamenta Briati. It was in 1743, during the annual "Fiera della Sensa" (Fair for the Ascension of Christ) which took place in St. Mark's Square on the first Thursday of Easter and where the most capable and important of all Venetian activities and guilds, chosen by a special commission, exhibited, that Briati began to display furniture with coloured crystal inclusions. The elegant forms in carved and gilded wood in the characteristic manner of the Venetian Rococo were thus embellished with the coloured reflections of embedded crystals, achieving enormous success in the rich society of the time and in the Italian and European arts. Rare examples of these extraordinary furnishings are preserved in private and public collections such as the Glass Museum in Murano and the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan, Giuseppe Lorenzo Briati (1686 - 1772) and the "All'Angelo Raffaele" furnace.