Side table
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1775 - 1800
Materials
Pine, gilt, paint
Measurements
99 x 174 x 87 cm
Place of origin
Genoa
Order this imageCollection
Attingham Park, Shropshire
NT 608140.1.1
Summary
A carved and painted giltwood side table, Genoa, circa 1775-1800, with a patterned mosaic top, probably made in Rome, bordered in Sicilian alabaster and gilt bronze. The top NT 608140.1.2. One of a pair. The other table NT 608140.2.1 and its top NT 608140.2.2. The table base topped by a leaf-carved moulding above a frieze of rosettes enclosed in running lozenge fretwork, punctuated by acanthus and terminating at either end in a large patera in a square. The frieze centred by a medallion in white on a blue ground, of three cavorting putti. Raised on turned and tapering fluted legs headed by capitals of acanthus and united by a shaped stretcher carved with guilloche and supporting a central urn with eagle's head handles and pierced for use as a perfume burner, painted to imitate porphyry.
Full description
Despite having features found on tables made in several places in Italy, these tables have recently been re-attributed to Genoa following research on the large collection of Italian furniture at Attingham by National Trust furniture curators, Christopher Rowell and Dr Wolf Burchard. The tables have been found to correspond with other Genoese tables, such as the one made circa 1785 for the dining room of Palazzo Spinola di Pellicceria, Genoa, which has a similar stretcher with curved ends and a circular central platform for an urn. They are also reminiscent of a pair of torchères designed by Carlo Randoni (1755-1831) for the Chapel Corridor at Palazzo Tursi, Genoa for where, it is believed, much of the other Italian furniture at Attingham was made. Their attribution to Genoa is also strengthened by William Noel-Hill, 3rd Lord Berwick’s (1773-1842) long-term residence in the region as a British envoy and diplomat. The mosaic tops were probably made in Rome.
Provenance
Believed to be 3rd Lord Berwick collection: William Noel-Hill, 3rd Baron Berwick (1773 - 1842). Listed in the Inventory taken at Attingham Park in 1913 (p. 59). Thence by descent, bequeathed to the National Trust with the estate, house and partial contents of Attingham by Thomas Henry Noel-Hill, 8th Baron Berwick (1877-1947) and transferred to the National Trust on 15th May 1953.
References
Rowell & Burchard 2020: Christopher Rowell & Wolf Burchard, 'Italian Furniture at Attingham Park', Furniture History LVI (2020), 107-176, 157-9, Figures 54-6