Lot 68: JONI, Icilio Federico (b. 1865/6) -- Painted 'tavolette' book covers in Biccherna style.

JONI, Icilio Federico (b. 1865/6) -- Painted 'tavolette' book covers in Biccherna style. [Siena: late 19th century].

Each panel 385 x 285mm. Two rounded wooden book covers joined by a leather spine, the front panel depicting full-length a saint [?St. Ansanus - see below], rear panel with 10 coats-of-arms and 12 lines of text naming 4 tax officials [Matteo Venturino, Nicola-Batista Oldobrandi, Iovani Di Bartolomeo, Alosio Ceretani] and dated 1450, characteristic scroll-work borders to both covers, 4 metal bosses and 2 catchplates on each panel, converse sides painted red-brown as usual (upper cover chipped and cracked, stabilized on verso, some losses of paint, leather torn at head and foot, some imperfections undoubtedly intentional.) Side-opening plexiglass case.

PROVENANCE: [Chevalier Xavier de Ghellinck Vaernewyck, 15 December 1982].

A FINE EXAMPLE OF THE WORK OF THE SELF-PROFESSED FORGER, ICILIO FEDERICO JONI. The saint depicted on the front panel with no attributes but a sword may be St. Ansanus, apostle and patron saint of Siena whose relics are in the Duomo. 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, yet Joni gave his bindings dates post-1459; the present example dated 1450 is an exception. 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 Hoe and Wilmerding. Even recognised as imitations, they had great cachet, as the commission by Lady Wantage for a binding in 1904 demonstrates. At least 14 examples of Joni's work are recorded and more are in circulation. 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. 488-489.

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