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Lot Essay
This pair of console tables form part of a distinct group of tables made in the 17th and early 18th century in Florence and Rome.
A very closely related late 17th century design by the architect and designer Giacinto Maria Marmi (circa 1600 - circa 1697) in the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffici depicts two mermaids with scaled tails supporting a table top (A. González-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto, Il Granducato di Toscana e gli Stati Settentrionali, Milan, 1986, vol. II, fig. 15). Marmi headed the Galleria Granducale before 1694 and was particularly noted for being a prolific designer while the identity of the craftsmen who actually executed his works in the atelier remain unclear.
The date of manufacture of these tables in Florence represents a slight mystery. Alvar González-Palacios suggests that the above mentioned oval table was made in the late 17th century, while he also mentions a note in the 1663 inventory of the Palazzo Pitti that seems to indicate that a similar table was in the apartment of the Gran Principe di Toscana, the future Cosimo III (ibid., vol. I, p. 20). More recently, however, Enrico Colle suggests that the two oval tables of this design date from the 1640s and the mid-17th century, as an inventory taken as early as 1637 mentions such a table in the Palazzo Pitti (I Mobili di Palazzo Pitti, Il Periodo dei Medici, 1537 - 1737, Florence, 1997, cat. 137 and 138, pp. 154 - 157).
A very closely related late 17th century design by the architect and designer Giacinto Maria Marmi (circa 1600 - circa 1697) in the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffici depicts two mermaids with scaled tails supporting a table top (A. González-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto, Il Granducato di Toscana e gli Stati Settentrionali, Milan, 1986, vol. II, fig. 15). Marmi headed the Galleria Granducale before 1694 and was particularly noted for being a prolific designer while the identity of the craftsmen who actually executed his works in the atelier remain unclear.
The date of manufacture of these tables in Florence represents a slight mystery. Alvar González-Palacios suggests that the above mentioned oval table was made in the late 17th century, while he also mentions a note in the 1663 inventory of the Palazzo Pitti that seems to indicate that a similar table was in the apartment of the Gran Principe di Toscana, the future Cosimo III (ibid., vol. I, p. 20). More recently, however, Enrico Colle suggests that the two oval tables of this design date from the 1640s and the mid-17th century, as an inventory taken as early as 1637 mentions such a table in the Palazzo Pitti (I Mobili di Palazzo Pitti, Il Periodo dei Medici, 1537 - 1737, Florence, 1997, cat. 137 and 138, pp. 154 - 157).