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The restoration process of the cabinet, which took half a year, involved working with metal, wood and velvet fixtures.
The corner unit is on exhibit alongside the chimney designed by GaudĂ for the same house of the Vicens family in Alella.
For the first time ever, GaudĂâs first house is exhibiting the corner cabinet designed by the architect for the Vicens-Giralt coupleâs family home in Alella. The cabinet is now on display after a six-month restoration process.
The item was in the possession of a descendant of the Vicens family, and the museum-house purchased it at the Lamas Bolaño auction house in June 2023. This heralded the beginning of the diagnostic and restoration process by the cultural assets restorers Sonia Berrocal and Marta Vilà .
The diagnostic and restoration process of the corner cabinet
The cabinet is made of wood, metal and velvet. The diagnostic process revealed degradation processes affecting all three materials. There were holes in the woods caused by woodworm, some boards had lost nails or had become detached, and dust and dirt had accumulated on it. The unitâs metal parts had rusted and some parts were also missing, mainly the flowers. The velvetâs colour had paled, it had come unstuck in several places and presented holes and damp patches.
Following the preliminary examination, the intervention proposed consisted basically of disinsection, cleaning away the dust and dirt and stripping the layers of rust. A preventive conservation protocol was then produced to keep the different surfaces clean and to control any signs of degradation.
GaudĂ and Alella: two pieces of furniture for the Vicens family
Between 1880 and 1890, the architect Antoni GaudĂ spent long periods at the Vicensâ family home in carrer de Dalt, now Anselm ClavĂ©, in the village of Alella. In this village of el
Maresme, GaudĂ designed the altarpiece for the church of Sant Feliu and construction work on Casa Vicens was undertaken that same year.
GaudĂâs friendship with the Vicens lasted for years, and now allows us to enjoy these two furniture items: a chimney and a corner cabinet. Both objects were designed for the Vicensâ house in Alella. Their relationship bequeathed us these two valuable objects, and Casa Vicens itself, located in Barcelonaâs street Carolines.
The first item is a corner chimney made of wood and metal with a metal panel bearing the inscription of the initials âM.V.â, Manel Vicens, at the bottom. This object had belonged to the Vicensâ niece until after the Civil War. At that time, she donated the chimney to the âAmics de GaudĂâ Association, and it subsequently became the property of the Junta Constructora de la Sagrada FamĂlia. Thanks to this transfer agreement, it has been on exhibit in Casa Vicens since the house was officially opened to the general public in 2017.
The second furniture item is a wall-mounted walnut wood corner cabinet bearing the initials âD.G.â, Dolors Giralt, in gilt brass on both doors, a nod to the lady of the house. The outside of this cabinet is decorated with floral motifs executed in brass, with web-footed birds in carved wood and open brass at the bottom serving as a plinth for the main column. The inside of the cabinet is upholstered in velvet with two half-moon shaped shelves that slot perfectly into the two shelves of the same shape inserted into each door. This cabinet has belonged to four generations of the Vicens family.
Its original owner was Ms Dolors Giralt, the wife of Manel Vicens. It then passed on to her daughter, Joana Giralt, who took her motherâs surname after her fatherâs death in 1895 and married Francesc Ălvarez i Montaner. This couple had a daughter, Josefa Ălvarez Giralt, who became the third owner of the cabinet. The fourth owner was Francesc Borrell Ălvarez (the son of Josefa Ălvarez and Salvador Borrell i Saunell). The corner cabinet then passed on to his wife, Carme CarriĂł SolĂ , and had several homes before being acquired by the Lamas Bolaño auction house and finally by the Casa Vicens.
Recovery of the heritage, restoration and public exhibition
The director of Casa Vicens GaudĂ, Emili Masferrer, explained that âthe decision to purchase this cabinet and restore it and then exhibit it publicly for the first time stems from the house-museumâs commitment to become a point of reference of GaudĂ as a young manâ. In this regard, Masferrer emphasised that Casa Vicens âis a key space for discovering the architectâs beginnings and for understanding his legacy.â And he added that âwe are proud to exhibit, once again, the cabinet and chimney together, exactly as they were conceived by the 30-year-old GaudĂ for the Vicens family home in Alellaâ.