SECOND QUARTER 19TH CENTURY

Details

AN ITALIAN MAHOGANY AND MARQUETRY CENTRE TABLE
SECOND QUARTER 19TH CENTURY
The top centred by a mother of pearl and gilt brass heightened marquetry panel of soldiers disembarking from a boat with a bridge and castle nearby, within a marquetry border and outer radiating surface of adjoining ovals in lemon wood and rosewood, with an outer surround with interlaced foliate tendrils with cherubs bordering roundels depicting Dante and other poets and writers, the segmentally mahogany veneered underside, centred by a mother of pearl figure mask of Medusa, hinged on a turned column with dolphins extending to a shaped trefoil base with foliate block feet
31 1/4 in. (79 cm.) high; 53 in. (135 cm.) diameter

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Lot Essay

The altar-drum table celebrates ancient love and heroic virtue. The top is glory-rayed in golden pearl-strings from a central shield-like medallion that is wreathed in palms and marquetried with a 'modern' scene of a warrior hero being ferried home, within an outer border displaying medallion portraits of poets.

A number of Italian tables from this period, in marble and scagliola as well as in wood, have a similar decoration of patterns radiating from a central pictorial roundel and an example with a similar illusory effect and use of timbers, although in parquetry, signed 'Saltini 1848', was sold anonymously, Sotheby's, New York, 25 September 1998.

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