BUSQUETS BROTHERS BUSQUETS I CIA, late nineteenth... Lot 35

BUSQUETS BROTHERS BUSQUETS I CIA, late nineteenth century. Dressing table, ca. 1877. Black painted wood and marble. Marks and wear on the marble. There is a similar model published in Estand Busquets, Hermanos y Cia. in the "Manifestació Catalana de 1877", Biblioteca del Taller Busquets, fig. 9. Measurements: 178 x 104 x 52 cm. Dresser made in the Barcelona workshop of the Busquets brothers at the end of the nineteenth century. The dresser consists of five drawers, three large lower drawers and two upper drawers. The front is decorated with incised and chiseled vegetal alternating with rhomboidal shapes. The top is made of marble and the mirror is framed in a rectangular frame with carved elements in the form of scrolls and volutes. The Busquets cabinetmaking workshop was created in Barcelona in 1840 by Josep Busquets i Cornet. In the 1860s his brothers Miguel, Marco Antonio and Juan joined the business. In 1878, after Josep's death in 1875, the workshop was renamed "Busquets Hermanos". The following year the participation in the family business was expanded with Francesca Cornet and Maria Busquets i Minguell, daughter of Josep Busquets i Cornet, changing the name again to "Busquets, Hermanos y Compañía". Joan Busquets i Cornet played a prominent role in the family workshop from the beginning and in 1880 he appears as majority partner in the accounting sources, with 47% of the capital. In 1888 he became the head of the workshop, with the title of cabinetmaker-tapper, and the company was renamed "Casa Juan Busquets". That same year, at the Universal Exposition of Barcelona, Joan Busquets i Cornet won a gold medal for the good installation and for distinguishing himself in the upholstery work. After the Exposition of Fine Arts and Artistic Industries of Barcelona in 1898, the name "Joan Busquets and Son" begins to appear in the press. The name refers to Joan Busquets i Jané, who was trained at the Llotja School in Barcelona as a cabinetmaker and furniture design technician, and from the beginning of the nineties he was already collaborating in the Busquets House making drawings for furniture designs. In the 1895-96 academic year he finished his studies and the School awarded him a travel grant to visit Spanish museums. In 1896 Joan Busquets i Jané received an honorary mention for furniture projects at the Fine Arts and Artistic Industries Exhibition in Barcelona. His work as a designer for the company became more important in 1898, when Busquets i Jané produced his first watercolor drawing with a modernist tendency.