THE MOSAIC MID-19TH CENTURY, THE TABLE FRAME ENGLISH, SECOND HALF 19TH CENTURY

Depicting flowers, fruit and vegetables emblematic of the Seasons, the finely-inlaid beribboned garland on the present micromosaic games top may be compared to wreaths of similar design found on three tables in the Gilbert Collection, London. The first, by the celebrated mosaicist, Michelangelo Barberi (d. 1867), features a wreath encircling night and day views of the Colosseum and St Peter's Square (see J. Hanisee Gabriel, The Gilbert Collection - Micromosaics, London, 2000, cat. 33, pp. 88-9); the second, attributed to Barberi, features an elaborate garland against a plain black marble ground (see Hanisee Gabriel, op. cit., cat. 73, p. 135); meanwhile the third, which is perhaps the most similar to the present example, if not in terms of overall composition then in style, is signed by the mosaicist Camillo Poggioli and dated 1839, and features a garland with four conjoined sections each depicting, as here, different seasonal flowers, fruit and vegetables (see Hanisee Gabriel, op. cit., cat. 51, pp. 107-8).

The four Horae to the corners, spirits or deities personifying the Seasons in Greek and Roman mythology, relate to those inlaid on an unattributed black marble vase, also in the Gilbert Collection (see Hanisee Gabriel, op. cit., cat. 194, pp. 258-9).