RARE WOODEN BOOK COVERS DECORATED IN THE MEDIEVAL STYLE OF THE TAVOLETTE DI BICCHERNA OF SIENA. PROBABLY CREATED BY ICILIO FREDERICO JONI.

[Sienna. Ca: ]., 1890 Two decorated wooden panels, painted in polychrome tempera, gold gilt, and gesso, with a leather spine. 330 x 250 mm. Elaborately decorated on one board with four armorial shields, surrounded by incised stamps on gilt fields and gilt floral sprays on a blue field. The text below the shields reads: "INVENTARIO DELLE COSE DEL LA SAGRESTIA DEL DUOMO EDE LALTRE COSE MOBILI DELU OPARA RIFATTO LASICO DA VOLTA AL TENPO DEL UENE RABILE UOMO FRANCESCHO DI PAOLO TADDEI ANNO D. 1475." [Roughly translated: Inventory of the things in the sacristy of the Duomo Ede. Taken from the last by the incomparable Frances Taddei in the year 1475. The front board has a lovely Rennaisance Madonna and Child, with "Samis de Petris" below. This de may have been an attempt to attribute the painting to the artist Sano di Pietro. Beveled edges. Brass bosses at each corner. Very good. RARE. A contemporary of the famed "Spanish Forger", Icilio Federico Joni (1866-1946) was born in Siena. As a young man he worked in the shop of a gilder and art restorer. He began, as a sideline, to produce imitations of fifteenth century Sienese painted wooden panel book covers. He based these tempera painted wooden panels on the Tavolette in the Archivio di Stato, which he probably never saw in person. It is quite clear from his autobiography (1932) that he was proud of his skill and his brilliant imitations of the ancient art of Siena. He considered them original art rather than 'forgeries'. There are probably no more than twenty examples of his work extant today. From the Bridwell Library, SMU: "A skilled producer of imitation "Gothic" altarpieces, he received a commission c. 1890 to create a book cover in imitation of those found on Siena's Tavole di Biccherna, the elaborately gilt and painted fourteenth-century tax registers. Without ever seeing a real Biccherna, he established a lucrative business of faking Biccherna covers. Joni later boasted of incidents in which the local police were alerted to books purportedly stolen from Siena Cathedral or the state archives, only to discover that they were by Joni. A number of book collectors were deceived by Joni's creations, and several of his works were published as Gothic originals. Today, Joni's forgeries are highly valued in their own right. In his autobiography Joni discussed his methods for antiquing the covers by mixing soot, turmeric, chrome yellow, and gilding gesso with gum arabic to produce the patina on the gold. The bosses were bathed in ammonia and the clasp plates were dipped in iodine, "which rusted them in just the right way." Note that Joni's boards are simply glued onto a rough leather spine; he apparently did not know how to replicate a fifteenth-century sewing structure." Research in America has clarified Joni's role as a restorer in such works as Piermatteo d'Amelia's Annunciation (Gardner Museum) and the half-length figures in Fra Angelico's Annunciation (Mrs E. Ford Collection). There are probably only about 50 of these known. RARE. SAFE.. Hardcover. Very Good.