NAPLES, CIRCA 1760, ON GEORGE III STYLE MAHOGANY BASES

These inlaid marble tops relate to a small group of similarly inlaid marble slabs made in Naples, most likely from the same workshop, from the 1750’s and 1760’s. The marble cutters of this workshop were evidently imitating the work of the Royal pietra dura workshops in Naples, which had been established by Charles Bourbon of Spain in 1737. It is recorded that Charles Bourbon had transferred a number of workers from the famed Medici workshops of Florence, who worked exclusively in semi-precious hardstones, as opposed to the less costly marbles seen in the production of the marble tops offered here. This pair combines two distinct design elements which feature on other inlaid marble tops in this group: naturalistic landscape panels and a spiraling geometric ground. A tabletop with entirely spiraling design is in the Spanish Royal Collection at the Prado, Madrid, documented as coming from Naples in 1759 (A. González-Palacios, Las Colecciones Reales Españolas de Mosaicos Y Piedras Duras, Museo Nacional del Prado, n.d., pp. 272-274, fig 60.), while a further pair of Neapolitan tops of this design dating from the late 18th century are illustrated in the Ariane Dandois 2002 catalogue (cat. 26). Examples of marble tops from this group with landscape scenes include one of particularly large size sold from The C. Ruxton and Audrey B. Love Collection at Christie’s New York, 20 October 2004, lot 323, which depicted a seascape with a sailboat, quay and barrel and a hilly landscape; another on a giltwood console table at Caserta, Naples with hunters in a landscape centered by a tree (A. González-Palacios et al., 'exhibition catalogue', The Golden Age of Naples, Art and Civilization under the Bourbons 1734-1805, Detroit, 1981, pp. 332-333, 353-354 and p. 360, cat. 117.); and a pair of serpentine tops on George III giltwood stands at Saltram House, Devon. Another example that combines a naturalistic landscape panel with a spiraling geometric ground can be found in the Gilbert Collection, (Anna Maria Massinelli, ‘Hardstones,’ The Gilbert Collection, London, 2001, p. 96, cat. 29.).