A pietra dura tabletop - Lot 58

A pietra dura tabletop A pietra dura tabletop A pietra dura tabletop Naples, early 19th century Attributed to the Royal Manufactory of Hard Stones. H. 78 cm; diam. 83.5 cm Provenance : Luca Burzio, London ; Private collection, France The tabletop is set in a chased silver frame, and features a pattern of concentric circles, including a double band of Nero Belgio, two bands of petrified wood, a band of Sicilian jasper adorned with geometric motifs in petrified wood and, at its center, an inlaid eight-pointed star. Condition: good Because of their polychromy, jasper and agate were sought after by Roman lapidary masters, as well as by the grand-ducal hardstone workshop in Florence in the 16th and 17th centuries, and later by the royal hardstone factory created in Naples by Charles de Bourbon in 1738 and active until the end of the Restoration. Conceived almost as a sampling of the different varieties of Sicilian jasper, this tabletop is a rare testimony to the activity of the Neapolitan manufacture between the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It is based on a model designed in 1804 by Giovanni Mugnai, then director of the Royal Manufactory, for a pair of semicircular consoles intended to be "veneered with various hard stones in a decorative mosaic pattern and embellished with fantasias (scherzi) in colored stones" such as agate, amethyst and petrified wood. These consoles were indeed delivered, and in 1844, during the reign of Ferdinand II, they were combined to form a single round table, now preserved at the Reggia di Caserta1. Various types of furniture were thus created, exploiting the infinite chromatic possibilities offered by Sicilian jasper and petrified wood. In 1807, a payment document, already mentioned by Alvar González-Palacios, mentions the cost of "veneering a table in hard stones from Sicily". The following year, another letter addressed to the Prime Minister announced the completion, "in the Pietre Dure factory, of a table identical to the one just delivered, rectangular in shape and composed of an assembly of Sicilian stones in 72 square pieces, each framed with Pietra Paragone from Flanders "2. This was followed by another tabletop, once again made entirely of Sicilian stone, destined to "join the others already present in the royal apartments "3. A tabletop similar to ours was exhibited by the Bensi Gallery in Milan at the VI Biennale Internationale d'Antiquariato in Florence in 1969. Summary translated from English of a study of this tray by Dr. Enrico Colle, Director of the Museo Stibbert, Florence.