{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O65680"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O65680/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BF7282/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BF7282/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006BF7282","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2019LX9517","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O65680/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O65680","accessionNumber":"6813-1860","objectType":"Commode","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"The underside of the top drawer of this commode is inscribed <i>Ignazio Ravelli di Vercelli Lano 1786</i>. Signed and dated pieces of furniture are very rare, and the commode was made by Ignazio Ravello (1756 - 1836) in 1786, some three years before he was known to be enjoying royal patronage in Turin, the capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia. Ravello was a specialist in inlay, who began his professional life copying the decoration on the Renaissance choir stalls in the church of S. Andrea in Vercelli, having noted that King Vittorio Amedeo III (reigned 1773 - 96) was particularly impressed by them. The inlays of classical remains on this commode are inspired by engravings by Giambattista Piranese  (1720 - 1778) and Vincenzo Mazzi (1748 - 1790), but also included are gothic ruins. They are one of the earliest datable signs on a piece of furniture of the Gothic Revival in Italy, a style which otherwise remained virtually unknown in that country before the 1820s.","physicalDescription":"Semi-elliptical commode, with inlaid architectural fantasies on the top and the three doors making up the curved front. The commode rests on four tapering legs on bronze sabots and the top is bordered with a frieze of mother-of-pearl cubes on an ebony ground. The central door opens up onto two drawers, veneered with stripes of tulip wood, splindle-wood and green-stained wood, matching the inside of that door. The underside of the top drawer is inscribed <i>Ignazio Ravelli di Vercelli Lano 1786</i>.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Ravello, Ignazio","id":"A11878"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"walnut","id":"AAT12476"},{"text":"tulipwood","id":"AAT12469"},{"text":"spindle-wood","id":"x34653"},{"text":"satin wood","id":"AAT12451"},{"text":"ebony","id":"AAT12055"},{"text":"ivory","id":"AAT11857"},{"text":"mother of pearl","id":"AAT11835"}],"techniques":[{"text":"veneering","id":"AAT53878"},{"text":"joining","id":"AAT137062"},{"text":"staining","id":"AAT53058"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Walnut carcase, with inlay of tulipwood, satinwood, ebony; the leg joints are reinforced with invisible metal pins","categories":[{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2006BF7282","2019LX9517"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"003","id":"THES342946"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"003","id":"THES302806"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Commode","id":""}],[{"text":"Key","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Turin","id":"x32500"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1786","earliest":"1786-01-01","latest":"1786-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"86.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Length","value":"99","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"50.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Ignazio Ravello / di Vercelli Lano 1786","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"Ignazio Ravello from Vercelli in the year 1786.","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Inscribed in ink on the underside of the top drawer."}],"objectHistory":"This item was made in 1786 by Ignazio Ravello (1756 - 1836), although his client remains unkown. The South Kensington Museum bought this commode in 1860 from unknown source for £50. At that date, no details of the purchase were recorde.  The piece was described as a 'console table' and as 'Italian. About 1760'.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Commode, Italian, Ignazio Ravello, 1786","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Giancarlo Ferraris: <i>Piero Piffetti e gli Ebanisti Torinesi</i> (Turin, Umberto Allemandi, 1992), pp. 291 - 292.\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Alvar González Palacios: <i>Il Gusto dei Principi</i> (Milan, Longanesi, 1993), 'I Ravelli, certo e incerto', pp. 363 - 66.\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Paolo San Martino: 'Scena e capriccio nelle tarsie del laboratorio di Ignazio e Luigi Ravelli ebansti, 1800, circa', <i>Studi Piemontesi 26</i> (1997), pp. 383-90.\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Milan, Palazzo Reale, <i>Il Neoclassico in Italia - da Tiepolo a Canova</i>, (Milan: Skira, 2002), pp. 328, 502.\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"James Yorke: 'A Signed and Dated Commode by Ignazio Ravello', <i>Furniture History</i>, Vol. XL (2004), pp. 73 - 82."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Colle, Enrico, Il mobile neoclassico in Italia.  Milan: Electa, 2005, no. 97, pp. 426-427"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Antonetto, Roberto, Il mobile piemontese nel Settecento.  Turin: Umberto Allemandi & C., no. 10, p.330"},{"reference":{"text":"Mazzocca, Fernando, <i>Il neoclassicismo in Italia: da Tiepolo a Canova</i>, Palazzo reale di Milano, 2002","id":"AUTH356822"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"Attribution note: This commode may originally have been one of a pair, although the other has not been traced.","productionType":{"text":"Limited edition","id":"THES48862"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"Ruins","id":"x36535"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["6813:1-1860","6813:2-1860"],"accessionNumberNum":"6813","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1860,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Key","Commode"],"assets":["2019LX0142"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-12-08","recordCreationDate":"2002-05-27","availableToBook":false}}