EARLY 18TH CENTURY, POSSIBLY WÜRZBURG

Details

A GERMAN GILT-GESSO PIER TABLE
Early 18th Century, possibly Würzburg
The rectangular top with gadrooned edge and profusely-carved with scrolling foliage, the centre with an oval panel enclosing further foliage, each corner with an Indian's head with plume head-dress below a monogram 'J L' (?) above a bolection-moulded frieze carved with trailing flowers, on pierced rectangular baluster legs carved with foliage and joined by an X-shaped platform stretcher with gadrooned rectangular feet, restorations to the gesso and gilding, the inner frame of the frieze possibly replaced
30¼ in. (77 cm.) high; 48 in. (122 cm) wide; 27½ in. (70 cm.) deep

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The distinctive slender outline of this table and several of its carved features correspond to a giltwood table previously in the Bischofswohnung in Würzburg, which was redecorated for Fürst Bischof Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn in the 1720s. One of the principal designers for this residence was Johann Peter Castelli, who is mentioned in the Schönborn ledgers between 1724 and 1726. These reveal the complexity of his activities for the court, which also included producing designs for furniture (R. Sedlmaier and R. Pfister, Die Fürstbischöflische Residenz zu Würzburg, Munich, 1923, pp. 83-90, 298 and fig. 178).

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