Bean-shaped centre room desk in Ferrarese walnut-root, inlaid by hand with 9 drawers

Bean-shaped centre room desk in Ferrarese walnut-root, inlaid by hand with 9 drawers. The main feature of this desk is the veneering in rare and precious wood, with a thickness of 4 mm, ‘700 Baroque Venetian Luigi XV style.

Model Description

Model Structure

The bean-shaped desk has 4 drawers on each side and a big central drawer, for a total of 9 drawers. The desktop is embellished on the border with a moulded milling, the frame develops vertically until the ground and it is surrounded by a refined base around the perimeter. The furniture is ideal both for contemporary and classic furnishing.

Raw Material

The inside of the bean-shaped centre room desk in Ferrarese walnut-root, inlaid by hand with 9 drawers '700 Baroque Venetian Luigi XV style is made of solid spruce wood, as in vogue in Venetian 18th century furnishing and it is completely coated by a 4 mm veneering of rare and precious woods in walnut-root, embellished by an inlaid thread of yellow box wood. The ring handles are made of bronze poured in casting moulds, reproduced from the original.

Manufacture

The frame is assembled with staves (wooden axes of 8-10 cm) shaped and vertically glued together for the bean shaping. The inside of the desktop is arranged with tablets of solid spruce wood with the crossed grain, in order to keep stability against the deformations. Hand-smoothed with rasps and abrasive papers, the desk is perfectly shaped and ready for the veneering. The desk is veneered with a thickness of 4 mm. in open walnut-root with vertical grain in the middle to create a specular drawing on all sides. Outside, the furniture is contoured by streaked walnut and there is an inlaid thread in yellow box wood, very rare and precious. The coating is handmade with natural glues and the external coating is fixed on the spruce with small mild steel nails bent on themselves. When the glue is dry and the coating is fixed the furniture is smoothed with some abrasive papers to remove corners and defects and make it completely smooth. The following step is the hand polishing with natural products and techniques used in the Venetian 18th century, that is natural clays dissolved in water for the right colour, slightly antiqued with stone on all the protruding parts, established with shellac applied with a brush and finally the swab with a wick. This old technique consists of running the wick (made of cotton or silk) all over the external parts of the desk soaked with alcohol, shellac and straw-yellow oil, from 12 to 15 times; this step gives the furniture a glossy appearance and enhances the grain and the amazing chromatism of all woods. The handles are handmade with the lost-wax casting technique, hand chiselled and hand polished.

Size of the model in the picture

Available in size 130x70x78h., the desk is customizable for sizes and type of wood.

Model History

Century of use

The shape of a bean and the precious Ferrarese walnut-root are typical of '700 Baroque Venetian Luigi XV style, in the first half of 18th century.

Historical notes and mobile curiosities

The original bean-shaped centre room desk in Ferrarese walnut-root '700 Baroque Venetian Luigi XV style inlaid by hand with 9 drawers is in the hall on the second floor of Palazzo Ca’ Farsetti in Venice, not far from Rialto Bridge. Vangelista Mobili 1960 has retrieved the original desk and has reproduced it thanks to the pictures, technical dimensional drawings and tracking of the outlines on plywood, with the result of a perfect replica of the original, 100% Made in Italy. Vangelista Mobili 1960 is one of the few companies who, thanks to the love for Venetian 18th century furnishing, is able to offer to his customers beautiful reproductions, with the old processing methods.