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161 - ROMAN HALF-LUNE CONSOLE FROM THE LAST QUARTER OF THE 18th CE…
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Estimate €12,000 - €18,000
Sale commission
Description
ROMAN HALF-LUNE CONSOLE FROM THE LAST QUARTER OF THE 18th CENTURY The scagliole top is probably English and attributed to Domenico Bartoli In carved and gilded wood, with a scagliole top decorated in polychrome with oak leaves and a twisted ribbon, the belt decorated with Greek foliage and a double frieze of pearls on a gunmetal blue sheet metal base, set with turquoise blue marble slabs embellished with carved alabaster bas-reliefs, the baluster-shaped uprights with twisted flutes, the central one surmounted by an eagle with outstretched wings; minor accidents H. 86 cm (33 ¾ in.) l. 162 cm (63 ¾ in.) P. 59,5 cm (23 ½ in.) A Roman giltwood, tole, blue marble and carved alabaster demi-lune console, last quarter of the 18th century, the scagliola table top probably English and attributed to Domenico Bartoli This astonishing demi-lune console table is typical of the best Italian production of the last quarter of the 18th century. The motif of an eagle with outstretched wings supporting the upper part of the central upright is often found on Roman pieces from the same period, such as a console in the Pinacoteca di Ascoli Piceno (see E. Colle, Il Mobile Neoclassico in Italia, Electa, Milan, 2005, p. 141). The same principle can be seen in a painting of Cardinal Andrea Archetti by Giuseppe Pirovani in 1787 (see fig. 1). Our piece reflects the infatuation shown by the English aristocracy between the end of the eighteenth and the very beginning of the nineteenth centuries for pieces of Italian furniture, often collected during their great European tours. Trays in Italian marble and hard stone marquetry were often commissioned by English collectors, who took them with them to England before mounting them on English bases from the same period; here the case is reversed, as the scagliole tray used is English and attributable to the workshop of Domenico Bartoli, the first to introduce scagliole marquetry decorations in England from the 1760s onwards. Between 1766 and 1777, Bartoli joined forces with John Augustus Richter, a native of Dresden, working from premises in Great Newport Street, London. Bartoli and Richter worked almost exclusively for the architect Robert Adam. From the 1770s onwards, the English fashion for half-moon-shaped consoles with white scagliola tops inlaid with resolutely neoclassical decorations took hold. From 1777 onwards, Bartoli continued to work for the architect James Wyatt, producing pieces that he designed himself, sometimes in the style of Robert Adam, while at the same time creating original decorations of his own. This is the case for the exterior frieze decorated with oak leaves held together by a ribbon knot, a motif that is unique to Bartoli; it can be found with minute variations on a number of works made by Bartoli, such as the mantelpiece in the state room of Burton Constable, Yorkshire (cf. fig. 2), the top of a half-moon console from the former collections of Archbishop Agar (cf. fig. 3), a console in the collections of Dunsany Castle (cf. fig. 4), Ireland (cf. D. Guinness and W. Ryan, Irish Houses and Castles, 1972, p.256) or on the top of a console sold at Christie's London on 5 June 2008, lot 7 (see fig. 5).
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About the sale Furniture and Works of Art - Evening Sale (Lot 1-170)
Auction location
Auction time 06/16/2026 at 5:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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