Beschreibung:

JONI, Icilio Federico (b. 1865/6) -- Painted 'tavolette' book covers in Biccherna style. [Siena: late 19th century]. Each panel 353 x 245mm. Two rounded wooden book covers joined by a leather spine, the front panel depicting presumably St. Catherine of Siena in a landscape setting kneeling before a table on which rests a model of the city, Christ appearing to her from above, below are 11 coats-of-arms and 8 lines of text naming the tax officials for the period January 1479/80 to July 1480, the rear panel with large coat-of-arms, characteristic scroll-work borders to both covers (upper and lower bead on front cover chipped away, almost certainly intentionally.) Top-opening wooden and glass case (487 x 608mm), lined with blue cloth. A FINE EXAMPLE OF THE WORK OF THE SELF-PROFESSED FORGER, ICILIO FEDERICO JONI Joni was a Sienese painter and restorer who produced imitations of the wooden panel bindings ( tavolette della biccherna ) used to cover the accounts of Siena from the middle of the 13th to the end of the 17th centuries. By his own admission, he never visited the city archives to inspect the originals, and his bindings are in fact anachronistic. From 1459 the accounts were bound in leather, and the tavolettes, although still painted, had evolved to become paintings framed for hanging. Joni's bindings, however, all bear dates after 1459; the present example, for instance, is dated 1480. While he sold a number of his imitations as medieval and Renaissance originals, he openly described his forgery work in his autobiography ( Le Memorie di un pittore di Quadri Antichi , 1932, English trans. 1936). Joni bindings -- undetected -- have graced some of the greatest book collections, including those of Borghese, Hoe, and Wilmerding. Even recognised as imitations, they had great caché, as the commission by Lady Wantage for a binding in 1904 demonstrates. At least 14 examples of Joni's work are known. See H.M. Nixon, 'Binding Forgeries,' Transactions of the VIth International Congress of Bibliophiles, 1969 , Vienna: 1971, pp.69-83; and M. Foot, 'A Pair of Bookcovers of the late 19th Century by I.F. Joni, The Book Collector , 1985, pp.488-89.