A pair of Italian giltwood sofas, Genoa, circa 1740-1744

with a shaped padded back within a reeded ribbon-tied frame, the cresting carved with a stylised scallopshell, guilloche and foliage, the top-rail carved with scrolls and bellflowers, with a mermaid on each side-rail with downscrolled arms, on stylised dolphin supports, the seat-rail centred by an espagnolette mask within a foliate cartouche flanked by lion masks, the side-rails carved with drapery swags, flowers and foliage, on cabriole legs terminating in scroll and paw feet ; (re-gilt)

(2)

Height 48 3/8 in., width 111 in., depth 24 3/8 in.; Haut. 123 cm, larg. 282 cm, prof. 62 cm

Provenance:
The Galleria Dorata, Palazzo Carrega-Cataldi, (now Chamber of Commerce), Via Garibaldi, Genoa, Italy;

Acquired from the above by the architect Stanford White and exported to New York, late 19th century;

Sold to the politician William Collins Whitney (1841-1904), circa 1896-1902, when Stanford White was renovating 871 5th Avenue, New York for him, situated in the Ballroom;

Thence by descent to his son Harry Payne Whitney (1872-1930), 871 5th Avenue, New York;

Thence by descent to his wife Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875-1942), 871 5th Avenue, New York;

Count Volpi di Misurata, Palazzo Volpi, Rome;

Sotheby's, London, 16 December 1998, lot 45 (the other pair from the same set was sold as lot 46, now in a Private Collection);

Sotheby's, London, 7 July 2009, lot 15.

Literature:
Orlando Grosso, Decorazione e mobilia di palazzi genovei nel Seicento-e nel Settecento, in Dedalo, Year 11, 1921, Vol. I, p. 62

Giuseppe Morazzoni, II Mobile Genovese, Milano, 1949, p. 101

Alvar González-Palacios, II Tempio del Gusto, La Toscana el" Italia Settentrionale, Milan, 1986, Vol. I, La galleria dorata dei Carrega, p. 375-376, Vol. II, figs. 835 and 836

Alvar González-Palacios, II Mobile in Liguria, Genova, 1996, p. 2. 19-220, plates 263 and 264, p. 186-190 and p. 229