Art by Medium: Marble

Oak with marble top Height: 55 inches (86.25 cm) Width: 55 inches (140 cm) Provenance Château de Mareil Le Guyon This commode is available to view at our gallery on Cecil Court. Jean-Pierre Latz Jean-Pierre Latz was one of the handful of truly outstanding cabinetmakers working in Paris in the mid 18th-century. Like several of his peers in the French capital, he was of German origin. His furniture is in a fully developed rococo style, employing boldly sculptural gilt-bronze mounts complementing marquetry motifs of flowers and leafy sprays, in figured tropical veneers like tulipwood, amarante, purpleheart and rosewood, often featuring the distinctive end-grain cuts. He also produced lacquered pieces, most famously the slant-front desk in the collection of Stavros Niarchos...

18th Century Continental School Bronze Sculpture of Aphrodite, c. 18th Century 25-3/4 in. h. x 11 in. w. x 9 in. d., without Base 1-1/4...

ITALIAN MARBLE HEAD OF A PHILOSOPHER Italy, Late 17th/early 18th Century Marble height 36 cm (14 1/4 in) height 51 cm (20 in) with base

MARBLE PORTRAIT HEAD OF VENETIAN DOGE, Italy, 18th Century Carrare marble 60 x 46 x 34 cm 23 1/2 x 18 x 13 1/2 in

PIETRA DURA TABLETOP WITH PARROTS AND CHECKERBOARD Rome, 18th Century Polychrome marbles, pietre dure and pietra paesina 117 x 73 x 5 cm 46 1/4 x ...

18th Century Italian breccia circular vase probably carved in Rome ROUND BRECCIA TAZZA, 18th Century Breccia H 29 cm D 39 cm

PAIR OF PIETRA DURA MOUNTED URNS France, 18th and 19th Century Amethyst and breccia pavonazzetto height 24.5 cm height 9 3/4 in

A Roman, Carrara marble sculpture of the mythological Greek god Pan as a fountain. Italy.

Encoignure desserte Louis XVI, estampillé de TOPINO, en acajou et placage d’acajou veiné à encadrement de bronzes. Elle ouvre par 1 tiroir en ceinture qui surmonte 2 étagères à galer...

A beautifully hand carved Roman marble bust of an Emperor or Senator. The richly draped robe features a relief of a face.

An 18th c. hand-carved, solid Carrara marble bust, likely of a holy Roman Emperor on a specimen marble base of the period. Inscribed "OTTONI".

Wonderfully carved, circa 1750, marble bust representing North and South America. Initially part of a series of busts that depicted "The Four Continents". The smiling figure is draped in a toga pinned...

A pair of rare, early 1700’s, Roman, beautifully hand–carved, solid Carrara marble cherubim singing in adoration. Each with feather embellished robe fragments. Both mounted on custo...

Hand carved, marble bust in three quarters, of a young man in a sensitively rendered, open-neck robe, with flowing hair held in a delicate circlet.

PAIR OF PIETRA DURA PLAQUES WITH LANDSCAPES Italy, Florence, 18th Century pietre dure in gilt bronze frame 28.5 x 39 cm (11 1/4 x 15 1/4 in) with frame 23 x 33 cm (9 x 13 in) withou...

PAIR OF PIETRA DURA PLAQUES WITH BIRDS Florence, 18th Century pietre dure in gilt wood frame 9.5 x 12 cm (3 3/4 x 4 3/4 in) without frame 15 x 17.2 cm (6 x 6 3/4 in) with frame

Signed and dated: ‘F. Harwood Fecit 1764’ Collections: Probably commissioned by Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon (1743-1827); Probably by descent at Gordon Castle, Banffshire to c.1948; Possibly acquired by Bert Crowther of Syon Lodge, Middlesex; Jacques Hollander (1940-2004); Christie’s, 5 December 2013, lot 101; Private collection; Sotheby’s, 2 July 2019, lot 106 Literature: John Preston Neale, Views of the seats of noblemen and gentlemen, in England, Wales and Scotland, London, 1822, vol.I, unpaginated. This marble copy of an ancient bust in the Musei Capitolini usually identified as Faustina the Younger, the daughter of Antoninus Pius and future wife of Marcus Aurelius, was made in Florence by Francis Harwood in 1764. Harwood was one of the most prolific suppliers of decorative marbles for the Grand Tour market and this finely worked example demonstrates the quality of luxury goods available to travellers to Italy. So often anonymous, this unusually signed and dated example, raises questions about the status of marble copies in the period and of sculptors such as Harwood who are known principally for ornamental work. Harwood’s origins remain obscure. He is documented living in Palazzo Zuccari with Joshua Reynolds and the Irish sculptor Simon Vierpyl at Easter 1752, he had certainly settled permanently in Florence by the following year, when he is recorded working with Joseph Wilton. He was admitted to the Florentine Academy on 12 January 1755 (as pittore Inglese, although he was described as scultore in the matriculation account). After Wilson returned to England in 1755 Harwood appears to have worked in a studio near SS. Annunziata with Giovanni Battista Piamontini who had made life-size copies of The Wrestlers and The Listening Slave for Joseph Leeson in 1754. In 1758 both sculptors were contracted to make a statue and a trophy to complete the decoration of the Porta San Gallo, Harwood completing a statue of Equality, installed the following year. By 1760 Harwood was on the brink of his most productive period as a sculptor, producing copies of celebrated antiquities for the ever-increasing audience of Grand Tour travellers and for the domestic market in London. In 1761 Harwood met the young architect James Adam who was in Italy specifically to make contact with suppliers for Robert Adam’s burgeoning practice back in Britain. The Adams offered a remarkably cohesive design package to their clients, encompassing not just architecture, but fixtures, fittings and furniture as well. Harwood was able to supply the brothers with marbles for their new interiors. At Syon, for example, Harwood produced a full-size copy of Michelangelo’s Bacchus for the new dining room the Adams had designed for Hugh Smythson, 1st Duke of Northumberland. Harwood seems to have also specialised in producing sets of library busts. In 1758 Charles Compton, 7th Earl of Northampton, a distinguished traveller commissioned a set of busts which remain in situ at Castle Ashby in Northamptonshire. It is perhaps no coincidence that the Adam brothers were producing designs for new interiors at Castle Ashby at this date. The set included representations of: Cicero, Julius Caesar, Marcus Aurelius, Faustina the Younger, Sappho, Seneca and Homer. Each of these busts Harwood seems to have replicated for multiple patrons, another Adam patron, Thomas Dundas...

PAIR OF FLORENTINE PIETRA DURA PLAQUES WITH BIRDS IN GILT BRONZE FRAME Florence, 18 Century Pietra dura, gilt bronze frame 7.5 x 11.5 cm (3 x 4 1/2 in) without frame 11.4 x 15.5 cm ...

BRECCIA FRAGMENT PLINTH Italy, 18th Century Breccia medicea 55 x d 25 cm 21 3/4 x d 9 3/4 in

BUST In Marble Probably From Carrara Representing King Henry IV Late 18th Century" Marble BUST probably from Carrara representing King Henry IV with a laurel wreath. late 18th centur...

"Louis 15th Console" Louis XV console in an eventful shape with 4 legs. It is in cream rechampi oak with carved decoration of split shells, scrolls, garlands of flowers. It rests on ...

PAIRE D’ENCOIGNURES RÉGENCE en placage de bois de violette à façade bombée. Elles ouvrent par 2 portes encadrées de montants décreusés de cannelures. Triple piètement. Dessus de marb...

Typical of 18th Century Rome, this fascinating pink marble urn with lid is a wonderful example of Italian decorative arts. Embellished with bronze moun...

A fine pair of Italian miniature jasper plinths

These four plaques represent either domestic (a horse, two rams) or exotic animals (a rhinoceros and an elephant). Made on slate slabs cut to shape (a rectangle with concave angles), they are all based on the same narrative scheme: in a frame of Egyptian porphyry, an animal in multicoloured marble is represented advancing on a green marble floor, standing out against a black slate background. These plates were made in Italy, probably in Florence or in Rome, during the 18th century. We think that their primary purpose was to decorate the drawers of a cabinet. Like many other compositions in hard stone, these plaques were inspired by engravings that were a widespread decorative repertoire in the workshops. Three of the plaques presented here were directly inspired by works by Antonio Tempesta (1555 - 1630): the Rhinoceros, the Polish Horse...