Lot Essay
The design of this console table relates to examples executed by Giovan Battista Foggini in the late 17th and early 18th century, particularly to those made after designs by Diacinto Maria Marmi. Two related drawings by Marmi for designs of supports for consoles incorporating female busts and volutes are in the Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe degli Uffizi in Florence, (illustrated A. González Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto, Milan, 1986, vol. II, p. 31, fig. 13). Interestingly, related models of console tables featuring large scrolling volutes, friezes centred by masks, and legs headed by figural busts, were similarly produced in Rome in the first half of the 18th century.
A pair of closely related Florentine console tables, formerly in the collections of Baron Mayer de Rothschild at Mentmore, Buckinghamshire, was sold at Sotheby's London, 9 June 2004, lot 27. Other related models depicting draped female figures rather than the more typical mermaids of the late 17th century are illustrated in E. Colle, Il Mobile Barocco in Italia, Milan, 2000, p. 192, n. 46; while another closely related console table was sold at Sotheby's Florence, 3-4 December 1990, lot 629.
A pair of closely related Florentine console tables, formerly in the collections of Baron Mayer de Rothschild at Mentmore, Buckinghamshire, was sold at Sotheby's London, 9 June 2004, lot 27. Other related models depicting draped female figures rather than the more typical mermaids of the late 17th century are illustrated in E. Colle, Il Mobile Barocco in Italia, Milan, 2000, p. 192, n. 46; while another closely related console table was sold at Sotheby's Florence, 3-4 December 1990, lot 629.