Table top
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1575 - 1600
Materials
Marbles and semi-precious stones
Measurements
2.9 x 130 x 112.5 cm
Place of origin
Rome
Order this imageCollection
Attingham Park, Shropshire
NT 608148.2
Summary
A pietre dure table top, Rome, circa 1575-1600 with two later inserted landscape vignettes, probably made in Florence, circa 1607-8. On NT 608148.1, an English white-painted and parcel-gilt table base, circa 1830. Centred by a cut-cornered rectangular reserve of lapis lazuli, within four red-bordered and lapis lazuli flowers and a border of geometric shapes against a black ground. These are set within a white-mottled green marble cartouche. The table's outer border is formed from alternating oval and rectangular cartouches or reserves. Two opposing sides incorporating a vignette of landscapes and buildings, which are believed to have been inserted later. Had they been original, there would have been - in the interests of symmetry - one to each of the table's sides. The precis date derives from their similarity to two reliefs in the Museo dell'Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence, designed by Bernardino Poccetti in 1607-8.
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. 60). 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
Jervis and Dodd 2015 Simon Swynfen Jervis and Dudley Dodd, Roman Splendour, English Arcadia: the English taste for pietre dure and the Sixtus Cabinet at Stourhead, 2015, 31 Rowell & Burchard 2020: Christopher Rowell & Wolf Burchard, 'Italian Furniture at Attingham Park', Furniture History LVI (2020), 107-176, 159-60, Figures 58-60