Forged fifteenth-century Sienese Tavola della Biccherna (tax register binding) [object].
Accession number:
PML 196060
Published:
Siena, [approximately 1890-1900].
Credit:
Purchased on the Gordon Ray Fund, 2014.
Description:
1 object.
Provenance:
Galerie Bassenge (Berlin), Auktion 103, 9 April 2014, lot 1074; Pierpont Morgan Library, purchased from Bassenge, April 2014.
Summary:
Forged fifteenth-century Sienese "binding" of two painted boards attached by a leather pseudo-spine. Top board depicts Mary Magdalene (auction description identified as St. Barbara of Nicomedia) and the bottom board has invented, triagular-shaped shields, with an Italian inscription claiming the contents to be an inventory of the sacristy of the Siena cathedral donated by Giovanni Borghese, dated July 1495. A nearly identical rear board is found on British Library, c188c11 (see online Database of Bookbindings).
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