Furniture, Silver, Clocks & Ceramics
Furniture, Silver, Clocks & Ceramics
An Italian carved white marble table, late 19th/early 20th century
Lot Closed
May 17, 12:08 PM GMT
Estimate
15,000 - 25,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
An Italian carved white marble table, late 19th/early 20th century
with a later rectangular top, raised at either end by two pierced lyre shaped supports flanked by a winged female mask above fruiting garlands, centered by embracing cherubs hiding beneath an arch
95cm. high, 190cm. wide, 101.5cm. deep; 3ft. 1⅜in., 6ft. 2¾in., 3ft. 4in.
Sotheby's, New York, 30 October 2013, lot 18 (sold $34,375).
The form of this table, with a marble rectangular top supported by two ‘lyre-shaped’ table ends, recurs throughout the history of Italian furniture. Indeed, the origins of the present table’s form ultimately lie in the Renaissance tradition, when the table-ends were usually wooden and joined by greater structural supports such as stretchers – see, for example, a Tuscan table sold Sotheby’s, Florence, 7 May 1980, lot 983 and a Roman table at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (acc. no. 57-1881). During this period, there were also some tables that combined marble tops with marble ends, the most celebrated of which is known as the ‘Farnese table’, in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (58.57a–d).
These Renaissance forms were no stranger to the few style revivals of the 19th century, as displayed by the present table. A related example was sold at Sotheby’s, New York, 3 October 2008, lot 240.