A pair of South Italian giltwood and reverse-painted glass consoles, Sicily, circa 1785

Possibly supplied to the Prince of Palagonia, Salvatore Gravina e Cottone (1742-1826) for the Villa Palagonia, Bagheria, Sicily;

Palazzo Agnello, Palermo;

Christie’s, Milan, 11-12 June 2001, lot 625;

Finarte Semenzato, Venice, Importanti mobili, oggetti d'arte, dipinti antichi da un palazzo palermitano e altre provenienze, 5 March 2006, lot 207.

E. Colle, Il mobile neoclassico in Italia, Milan, 2005, p. 56, fig.2.

RELATED LITERATURE [to be included within note]

M. Giarrizzo - A. Rotolo, Mobili e mobilieri nella Sicilia del Settecento, Palermo, 1992, pp.124 (fig.78), 134-135.

A. Gonzalez - Palacios, Il tempio del gusto (vol unico), Venice, 2000, pp.402-403, 408 (fig.2).

M. Giarrizzo - A. Rotolo, Il Mobile siciliano, Palermo, 2004, pp.78-80 (fig.129).

This type of superb console table, crafted from carved wood and adorned with glass sheets coloured in reverse to mimic marble and hardstones, epitomizes a distinctive group of exceptional furniture from late 18th-century Sicily. The similarities between this pair of tables and the seating furniture from Villa Palagonia (refer to the lots of seating furniture in this sale for more details) strongly suggest their shared Sicilian provenance.

Meant to accommodate small wall spaces on either side of a door or window, the present tables are one of the only examples of their size and scale which survive in the Italian version of the verre eglomisé technique. The decorative scheme, arranged in strict symmetry, is typical of early Neoclassicism: particularly effective is the juxtaposition in the frieze of an egg-and-dart border at the top with a continuous budding laurel motif on the lower part, glass panels to the apron and tapering legs surmounted by acanthus leaves and adorned by giltwood decoration. The colours chosen for the glass panels echo the chairs and settees formerly at Villa Palagonia in Palermo. 

Stylistically the chairs from Villa Palagonia are later in date than the console tables, and accordingly Alvar González-Palacios confirms the chairs date from the late 18th century/early 19th century (which is consistent with the date of 1813 marked on one of the chairs), while the larger furnishings such as the console tables date from between 1770-85.

Amongst these Sicilian neoclassical console tables possibly made ensuite by the same workshop, there are a few with similar characteristics to the present pair, including:

-a pair of aforementioned console tables, one at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, inv. Nr. W.18:1 to 2 -1970 (illustrated in Alvar González-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto, Roma e il Regno delle Due Sicile, 1984, p.275, fig. 632) and the other at Temple Newsman House, Leeds;

-a pair of console tables, one in a private collection (ill. Enrico Colle, Il Mobile Neoclassico in Italia, Milan, 2000, p.57) and the other sold at Finarte, Milan, June 2002, lot 359;

-a pair of console tables formerly in the collection of Lady Anne Tree at Mereworth Castle, still retaining the original trumpeting putti that were replaced in the V&A and Temple Newsman House tables; one offered at Sotheby’s, London, Treasures, 6th July 2016, lot 37, the other with a location unknown.

Further research by Giampaolo Distefano at Palermo's State archives in the Fondo Fidecommisaria Principe di Palagonia reveals the making of several tables covered in glass panels for the Prince at Villa Palagonia (Salvatore Gravina e Cottone) by the late 18th century. Amongst the furnishings, there are records of objects with motifs, namely female masks flanked on either side with putti playing the trumpet, above a tapering leg decorated with a figure supporting a basket of fruits, which are similarly found on aforementioned tables at the Victoria & Albert museum, Temple Newsman House and Mereworth Castle: “Posalumi a quattro gambe [...] Un volto donnesco nel centro con due puttini laterali rivoltati a detto con due brogne trattenute dalli stassi in atto di suonarle e due altri volti umani in profilo quasi intieramente sono intrecciati delli graffiti (f. 36 v) [...] Indorato in tutto come sopra una semi donzella con mezzo corpo di abbasso delfinico che esiste in un riquadro piramidale rovescio di una gamba di detto con cesto di frutta diverse sul capo dell’istessa trattenuto dalla braccia (f. 38 r)” If the tables from these institutional collections originate from Villa Palagonia, it is equally possible that the work of these craftsmen included the making of this offered smaller pair of tables, which are a match both aesthetically and in particular, in the overall structure and arrangement of the friezes.