Album Mosaique Decorative [UNIQUE SAMPLE ALBUM WITH AT LEAST 65 ORIGINAL PAINTED GOUACHE DESIGNS FOR MOSAICS]

[Nice, France]: NP, 1910. Hardcover. vg- to vg. Oblong quarto (8 1/2" x 11"). 43 individual single-sided leaves (hand-numbered). Period green pebbled cloth with blind-stamped ruling and gilt lettering on the front cover. Housed in a custom green leather over marbled paper clamshell box. Marbled endpapers.

This unique hand-assembled portfolio is comprised of at least 65 individual designs for polychromatic floor, wall panel and ceiling mosaics, created by Antonio Zanussi (1849-1911). The content may have existed in this state as a sample book, used by Zanussi prior to his death, or it may have been assembled posthumously, from a disparate group of loose designs created by the artist and/or "Mazzioli & Del-Turco Vve Chauviret", the noted international mosaic firm/atelier, which he oversaw during the late 19th and early 20th century.

Each image is a gorgeously rendered and vibrant painting in gouache, often with phenomenal detail, shading and three-dimensionality. Additionally many images are highlighted or over-painted with lustrous metallic hues of gold and silver. The images here represent the intersection of classical designs from antiquity with the more modern sensibilities of the Belle Époque and the Art Noveau period. The content served both as speculative samples of the firm's work and in some cases maquettes or preliminary designs for specific projects commissioned to the firm. One example is a maquette for a mosaic showing the arms of the Count d'Angerville.

The paintings range in size from 1 1/4 x 4 3/4" to full-page 8 1/2 x12" images, and range in complexity from simple geometric patterns and flowing natural forms, to elaborate floral, royal and heraldic motifs, as well as religiously and classically-inspired scenes and vignettes. A few of the images are accompanied with pencil or ink notes in the margins, some including emendations or corrections to the design by the artist. A few of the plates have additional small preliminary design sketches in pencil near the edges, or on the versos. The very last image is not a painting but a detailed lithograph. All designs are hand numbered in ink, usually with one image to a plate, a few with multiple images. Some plates bear the ink stamp of Zanussi and/or the Mazzioli & Del-Turco firm in the margins*.

One of the designs is an elaborate and detailed natural scene, in an Art Noveau style, with exotic trees and birds, painted onto a folded sheet of parchment paper and laid into the album. The image which measures 10 x 11 3/4", is separated by black borders which render it in the form of a multi-panel display. There are remnants of other torn-off designs on parchment paper attached to the back of a few other plates.

Also laid in is a manuscript receipt, in French, for the purchase of the album by a Monsieur Carassale, for the sum of 35 francs (equivalent to $175 today), dated November 22nd, 1912.

Binding with spine rebacked, and very minor smudges and stains to the boards. There a number of sporadic instances of light foxing to the versos of plates or in the margins, with most images still being clean and extremely vibrant. Binding in very good, interior in overall very good- to very good condition. Antonio Zanussi (1849 - d.1911, Nice) was a Italian-born French mosaicist. He was successor to the Mazzioli-Chauviret (& Del Turco) mosaic house and worked on many prominent mosaic construction projects and ancient restorations done in France during the Belle Époque. He was originally from an Italian family from Friuli, where there had been a tradition of master mosaicists. Latter in his life he settled in Nice, where he died in 1911. Among the prominent projects to which he contributed were the restoration of the great Lillebonne mosaic (1883-1885) and construction of the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, which had not yet been completed at the time of his death.

The firm of Mazzioli & Del-Turco (also Mazzioli and Chauviret) was a leading international mosaic atelier of the 19th century. At their height they had regional branches in London and Paris. Founding members of the Mazzioli studio were all Italian immigrants from the town of Sequals, in the Fruili region. Among noted collaborators and clients, the company worked with Giandomenico Facchina and the Odorico company. In London the firm contributed designs to many notable projects such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the London Coliseum, and Westminister Cathedral.

* Credits (Ink Stamps):
- "A. Zanussi, Enterprise de Mosaiques en Tous Genres" (Nice)
- "Atelier Mosaique des Alpes-Maritimes, Enterprise de Travaux Mosaiques, Zanussi" (Nice)
- "Ancienne Maison Mazzioli & Del Turco Vve Chauviret, A. Zanussi Successeur" (Paris).