Tops with scattered chips, small losses, scratches, abrasions and some restorations; most to edges. Tables with scattered age and construction cracks, abrasions, dents and scuffs. Carving with scattered old restored bbreaks and some minor losses; not extensive. Scattered old worm damage throughout to both. Apron of both reinforced on reverse. One with top reinforced and blocked in corners. Gesso with scattered cracks, abrasions and chips. Regilt, gilding with rubbing, some losses and surface dirt.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
The pair of tables presented here is the most compelling example existing of Florentine court furniture of the mid eighteenth century. Their design clearly derives from late Roman Baroque furniture and sculpture but some characteristics appear to be distinctly Florentine: the slender form of the bodies, the sharp profiles of the faces particularly in the lines of the noses that can be compared to some of the drawings by the sculptor Giovanni Battista Foggini and by Diacinto Maria Marmi, head of the Granducal
Guardaroba and a most able designer of furnishings and ornaments. The tables’ general design is also influenced by Roman taste yet the carving is more detailed and less rotund. The wings of the female supports, for example, are smaller and more sharply carved and so are the flaming scrolls of the apron. On the other hand, the large volutes issuing the female figures appear more fluid than analogous Roman elements. The small supports beneath the scrolls or volutes under the harpies and the manner in which the figures in the rear are cut towards the wall are completely different from what was done in Rome. Another factor determining a Florentine character is the type of marble used for the tops:
giallo di Siena, a yellow stone which, as indicated by its name, is typically Tuscan. In 1750, a craftsman working for the Grand ducal court supplied for the Palazzo della Crocetta in Florence six tables carved with festoons, foliage and “harpies and sirens on the corners.” All six tables had
giallo di Siena marble tops. This description reminds us of the tables presented here. The stretchers of these tables are centered by elements rather unusual in eighteenth-century Italian furniture: rich and asymmetrical Rococo cartouches mirroring one another (one facing to the left, the other to the right). This makes it evident that the two tables were destined for the same room.
I have published some other tables that, even if slightly earlier, are stylistically related to these tables. One is in the Walters Arts Gallery in Baltimore; another was on the art market in London years ago: they have lost their original marble tops, see Alvar González-Palacios Il Tempio del Gusto, Milan, 1986, p. 28, fig. 8. Two more tables of this type are in the Palazzo Pitti but have been senselessly adapted in the nineteenth century, see Enrico Colle, I mobili di Palazzo Pitti. Il primo periodo lorenese, Firenze-Torino, 1992, pp. 103-104.
Alvar González-Palacios
Comparable tables:
- a table sold Pandolfini, Arredi del Palazzo della Gherardesca, Firenze, December 15, 1991, lot 52
- a pair of Florentine carved giltwood console tables formerly in the collection of Baron Mayer de Rothschild and deriving from the dining room at Mentmore Castle, Buckinghamshire, sold Sotheby’s London, June 9, 2004, lot 27
- a table offered for sale then withdrawn from the sale, from the executors of the 6th Earl of Rosebery and his family, Sotheby’s Parke Bernet & Co, Mentmore, Buckinghamshire May 18-27, 1977, lot 881 (offered as Roman or Venetian)
- a table sold Sotheby’s London, May 24 and 31, 1985, lot 62 (offered as Roman Baroque)
