Carved Giltwood Mirror & Matching Marble Top Wall Console by Osvaldo Borsani

Osvaldo Borsani carved painted and giltwood mirror with matching wall-mounted console and white marble top, Italy, 1940s.

The large mirror has an elongated rounded form framed by a deeply reeded painted wood surround. The closely spaced vertical carving follows the entire perimeter of the frame, emphasizing its softly curved outline. A separate inner giltwood molding, finished with applied gold leaf, borders the mirror plate and provides a refined contrast to the warm ivory-painted outer frame.

The matching wall-mounted console is fitted with a long white marble top with rounded ends. It is supported by two carved and painted wood brackets, each decorated along the curved outer edge with a deeply modeled gilt foliate or feather motif. The ivory-painted wood and gilded details of the console repeat those of the mirror, while the elegant white marble top completes the matching ensemble.

The ensemble reflects Borsani’s work of the 1940s, a period in which traditional Italian cabinetmaking, hand carving and gilding were increasingly combined with simplified forms and more modern proportions. The quality of the fine workmanship and the beautiful integration of decorative and structural elements are characteristic of Borsani’s interiors of the period. This balance between decorative artistry and emerging postwar modernism is one of the qualities that makes his work from the 1940s particularly distinctive.

Mirror:
H 44.5 × W 31 in.

Wall-mounted console:
H 14.5 × W 45.5 × D 10 in.