CIRCA 1720-1730, POSSIBLY SOUTH GERMAN OR NORTH ITALIAN

This impressive side table, with its combination of bold strapwork and richly sculpted figures and masks with tassled lambrequins, defies easy categorization. Stylistically, it marks a transition from the more architectural forms of the baroque to the fluid, naturalistic forms of the rococo. The use of limewood is typical of South German carvers, while the use of masks carved in relief is a feature of a celebrated series of consoles supplied to the Residenz in Munich after designs by François Cuvilliés (see B. Langer, Die Möbel der residenz München,Munich, 1996, vol. II, pp. 134-146). However the freely sculptural nature of the carved figures could equally suggest a North Italian origin. A series of Genoese consoles with similarly suspended putti is illustrated in A. González-Palacios, Il Mobile in Liguria, Genoa, 1996, pp. 149-153.