A PAIR OF LACCA POVERA PAPIER MACHE BALUSTER VASES, Italian, probably Venice, circa 1750
Height: 22½ in; 57.5 cm
Diameter: 12¼ in; 31 cm
Diameter: 12¼ in; 31 cm
4443051
£50,000 - £100,000
‘Lacca Povera’, or lacca contrafatta, was a technique of decorating papier-mâché surfaces and simulating porcelain by pasting cut-outs, often of prints, onto a prepared coloured ground and then varnishing over...
‘Lacca Povera’, or lacca contrafatta, was a technique of decorating papier-mâché surfaces and simulating porcelain by pasting cut-outs, often of prints, onto a prepared coloured ground and then varnishing over the whole. With gold leaf highlights added, the effect is deceptive. The centre of production was Venice. As a technique, it has similarities to collage today.
Augustus the Strong (1670-1733) used similarly deceptive vases made of turned wood and then lacquered to simulate oriental porcelain for his Porcelain Palace in Dresden as early as 1725.
Few examples of Lacca Povera have survived, and pairs are even rarer.
Provenance
Private collection, New York, USA;
Private collection, England.
