The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. It seems more than likely that the condition of this panel is very good. The wood is un-reinforced on the reverse. The paint layer is stable and has recently been cleaned. There are no retouches immediately visible under ultraviolet light and although the paint layer has shown small isolated spots of shrinkage here and there in a few places, this is not a condition issue and neither these nor any other elements of the picture seem to have received any retouches.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

At the end of a peripatetic career, Bison had settled in the city of Milan in 1831 where he would remain for most of the rest of his life.  Here he painted city views and scenes of daily life, continuing in the Venetian tradition of vedute painting in which he had been trained. This work was painted during his years in the Lombard capital, and it depicts a scene set more than half a century earlier.  It is not surprising that—having witnessed the political and social upheavals of the late 18^th and early 19^th century—the mature Giuseppe Bernardino Bison recalled with fondness the kinder and gentler days of the ancien régime.  In the present charming panel, he evokes a world that had been replaced years earlier by a new, modern order.  In the neoclassical interior of a city palazzo, Bison depicts the final stages of an elegant midday meal.  Liveried footmen serve the gue💛st of a host, seated at the head of the table drinking a glass of wine.  Another guest looks at a portrait of the house's owner and his wife, while—in an exotic touch—a maid in her ankle high skirt feeds her master's pet parrot. 

Fabrizio Magani confirms a dating of this picture to Bison's Milanese years, comparing it to the Caffe dei Servi, Milan of 1835 (e🎃x Praz collection, now Galleria Na🔯zionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome), which disposes the interior space in a similar way to the present picture.