Display case attributed to Joan Busquets

Attributed to JOAN BUSQUETS I JANÉ (Barcelona, 1874 - 1949).
Modernist showcase, ca. 1900.
Birch wood. Copper and brass applications.
Pyrography decoration on the base.
In good condition.
Measurements: 198,5 x 71,5 x 65 cm.

The quality and style of this modernist showcase coincides with the most select furniture designed by Joan Busquets, one of the great cabinetmakers and decorators of Catalan modernism, whose designs are a reflection of the welfare and aspirations of the booming bourgeoisie, and are distinguished by the use of noble and expensive woods and by the works of marquetry and carving. We are faced with a showcase raised on four typically modernist legs, which give rise to a curved skirt embellished with pyrography, a technique widely used by Joan Busquets and his workshop. The main body, the showcase itself, has three of its sides glazed, and its corners are reinforced by moldings ornamented with sinuous organic stems, Coups de fuet and attractive flowers, all carved in gold or copper. The piece of furniture culminates in an exquisite top that combines curved moldings with animalistic carvings (two snails glide at a slow pace) and, again, decorated with flowers and gilded carvings. The lock, with key, is made of gilded brass.

Furniture designer and decorator, Joan Busquets is currently considered one of the most representative figures of Catalan modernism. He began his training in the family workshop, and then studied at the School of La Llotja in Barcelona, where his teachers were Guitart and Lostaló. In the 1895-96 academic year he obtained a scholarship that allowed him to travel around Spain, which he obtained thanks to a project for a Renaissance-style bookcase-cabinet. He exhibited furniture projects for the first time at the Barcelona Exhibition of 1896. The workshop of Joan Busquets was one of the most outstanding of modernist Catalonia and is currently, together with the production of Gaspar Homar, the most representative testimony of the furniture and decoration of Catalan modernism. He was president of the Fomento de las Artes Decorativas between 1918 and 1921, and supervised the manufacture of furniture for Gaudí's Casa Calvet. Works by Busquets can currently be found in the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Güell Palace in Barcelona, the National Museum of Decorative Arts and the Museum of Catalan Modernism in Barcelona, among others, as well as in several important private collections.