Cesare Canessa (1863-1922), Ercole Canessa (1869-1929) and Amadeo Canessa (1874-1934) were born in Naples (Italy). The three brothers established in 1889, in Rue La Fayette, a business dedicated to the sale of works of art. They formally constituted the company C. & E. Canessa in 1905 and opened branches in Naples, Paris and New York (Nørskov, 2021). Subsequently the Canessa's moved to New York and published numerous catalogs devoted to furniture, numismatics, classical art, vessels, etc (Canessa, 1915; Canessa, 1919). They also formed a large collection of art objects (Sambon, 1904; Richter, 1906).
Bibliography
CANESSA, Cesare y CANESSA, Ercole (1919): Illustrated Catalogue of the Canessa Collection of Rare and Valuable Objects of the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Gothic and Renaissance Periods, Nueva York.
CANESSA, Ercole (1915): Catalogue Canessa’s Collection, Panama-Pacifc International Exposition, Canessa Printing Co., San Francisco.
NØRSKOV, Vinnie (2021): "When is a Collection a Collection? Provenance Studies and the Role of Dealer’s Collections", en Collecting Antiquities from the Middle Ages to the end of the nineteenth Century, Universty of Wrocław, Wrocław, pp. 9-20.
RICHTER, Gisela (1906): "The Canessa Collection", vol. 9, nº 39, The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, p. 204–211.
SAMBON, Arthur (1904): "Vases antiques de terre cuite. Collection Canessa", Bureau du Musée, París.