NAPLES, SECOND HALF 18TH CENTURY

The arrangement of specimen marbles in a lozenge or interlocking rings pattern was popular amongst marmisti, or marble-workers, whose skills for inlaying hardstones were held in high regard by Grand Tourists of the 18th century. As the primary centres for marble table top production included Florence, Rome, and Naples, the volcanic specimens used to create the present table most probably derive from the south of Italy. Grand Tourists who purchased related specimen marble and lava table tops during their sojourn to Italy include Patrick Home of Wedderburn (1728-1808), who returned to Scotland with vast collections of Italian pictures, vases and chimneypieces for Paxton House, Scotland and John Parker, later 1st Lord Bovington, who purchased four slabs for Saltram House, Devon. Three similar specimen lava slabs were bought by Brownlow Cecil, 9th Earl of Exeter (d. 1793) for Burghley House, Lincolnshire, during his Grand Tour 1763-4, and another was given by the 9th Earl to the British Museum in 1764. A specimen lava top likely supplied in Italy for William Cole, 1st Earl of Enniskillen (d.1803) for Florence Court, Co. Fermanagh, Ireland was sold Christie's London, 11 November 1999, lot 182 (£54,300 including premium). Other examples of tops with interlaced roundels sold at auctions include one sold Sotheby's, London, 10 December 2003, lot 175 and another sold Sotheby's, London, 13 June 2001, lot 53.