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Lot Essay
The firm of 'Guiseppe Darmanin e Figli', or J[ospeh] Darmanin & Sons for their British customers, originally produced pavements and church monuments but is now best known for their ambitious marble mosaic tables which were exhibited at the 'Great Exhibitions' of the 19th century and were popular souvenirs of the Grand Tour for wealthy British tourists.
Particularly popular, and repeatedly used by J. Darmanin & Sons, were table tops with emblems of Carthage - in reference to Malta's ancient past as a colony of the Ponenician Empire. Here a Carthaginian warrior is shown, and the same figure appears on a pair of tables by J. Darmanin & Sons, supplied to the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry at Wynyard Park, sold Christie's, New York, 27 September 2007, lot 300 and illustrated ibid p. 174, fig. 17. A very similar circular table with the same figure is illustrated in E. T. Joy, English Furniture 1800-1850, London 1977, p. 284. A table shown by Darmanin at the Great Exhibition of 1851 is now in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace and another, commissioned in 1839 for Blairquhan Castle, is offered here as the following lot.
Particularly popular, and repeatedly used by J. Darmanin & Sons, were table tops with emblems of Carthage - in reference to Malta's ancient past as a colony of the Ponenician Empire. Here a Carthaginian warrior is shown, and the same figure appears on a pair of tables by J. Darmanin & Sons, supplied to the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry at Wynyard Park, sold Christie's, New York, 27 September 2007, lot 300 and illustrated ibid p. 174, fig. 17. A very similar circular table with the same figure is illustrated in E. T. Joy, English Furniture 1800-1850, London 1977, p. 284. A table shown by Darmanin at the Great Exhibition of 1851 is now in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace and another, commissioned in 1839 for Blairquhan Castle, is offered here as the following lot.