BY GIUSEPPE MONTELATICI, FLORENCE, CIRCA 1880

This table top is finely inlaid with semi-precious hardstones including lapis lazuli, jasper, chalcedony and breccia marbles depicting flowers, butterflies and songbirds. It is representative of the finest fabbrica di mosaici di Firenze which was produced for the great exhibitions of the 19th century. Angiolo Montelatici e Fratelli, mosaicists, exhibited at the Florence exhibition in 1861 and by 1867 Giuseppe is listed with his older brother Angiolo, or Angelo, in Murray’s Handbook Advertiser with addresses at Lungarno Nuovo 12 and Borgo Ognissanti 21. By this time with fifteen employees, the Montelatici brothers exhibited at the 1867 Paris Exposition universelle and by 1871 had opened a branch in the famous Germany spa city of Baden-Baden. By the 1880s there are addresses at Via dei Fossi and Lungarno Corsini 6. A cabinet dated 1883 is labelled, like the present lot, with Giuseppe’s name and Lungarno Corsini 7. It is probably the same cabinet shown by Giuseppe Montelatici at the 1878 Paris Exposition universelle described at ‘Firenze. — Stipo, stile 1500, in ebano, a sbalzo con mosaici — Due tavole in mosaico di Firenze’ (L'Esposizione di Parigi del 1878 illustrata, No. 59, p. 318).