: When the board of the Hickory Museum of Art in Hickory, N.C.,
decided to deaccession items held in storage, they had no idea
one of these objects would create so much excitement.
Bidding opened at $28,000 at Brunk Auctions recently for a late
Eighteenth Century micromosaic table with top attributed to
Giacomo Raffaelli. When the hammer finally fell after heavy
telephone and gallery participation the audience cheered as
auctioneer Robert Brunk declared the table "sold" for $400,000 --
a record price, according to the gallery.
"This object had all the elements which can lead to record
prices," declared Brunk. "It had a clear provenance from the
museum, it was fresh to the market and it was an exquisite
example of the micromosaic technique."
The Raffaelli top, comprising thousands of tesserae.
Italian mosaicist Giacomo Raffaelli (1753--1836) developed
the technique of taking long rods of molten colored glass and
snipping these rods into tiny pieces called tesserae. This table
top, 34 by 511/2 by 261/2 inches, compressed thousands of pieces of
brilliantly colored tesserae. The design was a central medallion
with krater surrounded by beaded and ivy borders, flanked on each
side by octagonal panels with incense burners, urns and other
classical objects all within an ornate scrolled field with
neoclassical heads at the top and bottom. A Greek key tesserae
border framed the design.
Two similar micromosiac tables are in the collection of the
Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia; one, attributed to Giacomo
Raffaelli, features a chariot driven by stags and is similar in
style and design to the one sold at Brunk. Rafaelli's workshops
were in Florence, Milan and Rome. He is well-known for several
examples of his work found in England: The famous mosaic floor at
Syon House near London and mosaic work in the Gilbert Collection,
Somerset House, London.
How this example of an Italian artisan's work arrived in Hickory,
N.C., is not known. What is known is that Adolph Levitt,
executive of the Doughnut Corporation of America, donated the
object to the museum on April 7, 1949. According to acting
executive director Andrea Maricich, the table had been placed in
storage for most of its stay at the museum. Last year the board
decided to deaccession objects that did not fit with their
current collections.
Revenues from the micromosiac table and other objects will allow
the museum to expand its permanent collection of North Carolina
studio glass and regional outsider art. The museum is also noted
for its large collection of regional art pottery, which will be
making a national tour in 2005.
