T.I. Mazzotti

Who was T.I. Mazzotti? Was he Pellegrino? Or James? Or was he a third Mazzotti? Has there ever been a T.I. Mazzotti?

He was mentioned in J.W. Goodison's 'Catalogue of Cambridge Portraits. I The University Collection', Cambridge University Press, 1955, p. 72-3 as the maker of two plaster casts of busts by Roubiliac of Sir Francis Bacon and Sir Isaac Newton. The orginal busts by Roubiliac are in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge. The plaster casts were in the English Faculty Board Library in 1955. It is unclear where they are now.

T.I. Mazzotti is believed to be the maker of the plaster casts, because the cast of Sir Isaac Newton has a scratched inscription 'T.I. Mazzotti Fecit / Amundti (?) 1836.' It appears that the inscription was not well legible. Amundti (?) may be a place name. Were the initials really T.I.? If the casts can be found, it would be worth checking the inscription.

The bust of George Basevi at the Fitzwilliam Museum was attributed to T.I. Mazzotti. http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/opac/search/cataloguedetail.html?&priref=29252&_function_=xslt&_limit_=10

However, Jacob Simon, Chief Curator of the National Portrait Gallery, questions the attribution.

'The bust of George Basevi is given to Mazzotti in the Fitzwilliam Museum on-line catalogue (M.1-1853), following the attribution in JW Goodison, Catalogue of Cambridge Portraits, 1955 p.112. Goodison’s starting point is the reference in the 1853 Handbook to the Pictures in the Fitzwilliam Museum to the bust being executed from a cast by Mr Nosotti. He goes on to suggest that Nosotti seems likely to be in error for Mazzotti, a cast maker, or family of cast makers, known to have been active in Cambridge and Norwich. However, there was a Nosotti active in London at the time who would have been capable of supplying a cast. Details are pasted in below from the National Portrait Gallery website at http://www.npg.org.uk/research/conservation/directory-of-british-framemakers/n.php . I would have thought that it would be safer to link the bust to Nosotti, based on the 1853 Handbook, unless there is independent evidence supporting an attribution to Mazzotti.'

'Charles Andrew Nosotti (c.1800-1854) was born in or near Milan and, according to a subsequent claim, was in business in London by 1822. In 1827 he married Amelia Ruenia Garbanati, daughter of Joseph Garbanati (qv), another Italian carver and gilder in London. Initially he seems to have traded as Andrea Nosotti with Francis Nosotti, possibly his brother, as looking glass manufacturers, until the partnership of A. and F. Nosotti, also styled as A. Nosotti & Co, 21 New Compton St, was dissolved in 1826 (The Times 16 November 1826). Andrea Nosotti appears to be the individual listed as A. Nosotti at 19 Great Windmill St in 1828, and as Andrea Nosotti at 2 Dean St in 1829. Francis Nosotti traded at 298 Oxford St as a looking glass and picture framemaker, 1829-31. C.A. Nosotti was listed at 198 Oxford St in 1838, perhaps in error since he appears at 398 Oxford St thereafter.

Charles Andrew Nosotti advertised a sale of his surplus stock when he moved to Oxford St in 1838, including pier and chimney glasses in rich gilt frames, console and pier tables, cornices, picture frames etc (The Times 9 July 1838). His new showroom was at 399 Oxford St, with his gilders’ shop in adjoining premises round the corner in Great Chapel St, according to plans held by the Metropolitan Building Office, c.1845-53 (London Metropolitan Archives, MBO/PLANS/518). In his will, made 11 July 1853 and proved 18 April 1854, Nosotti requested to be buried in the basilica of St George at Cuggiono, near Milan, presumably his birthplace.'