Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
GRAND TOUR STYLE
For 18th-century young British noblemen, no education was complete without a year on the Grand Tour. Although it had no official route, the Grand Tour focused on places foundational to European art, literature and architecture, including sites in France, Germany, Switzerland and, most importantly, Italy. It was an opportunity not just to witness the roots of the classics they had studied but also to take some of it home. Grand Tour furniture was among the souvenirs.
Grand Tour furniture ranged from marble architectural models replicating ancient wonders to actual antiquities often taken illicitly, leaving a legacy of looting still being unraveled today. Other items reflected the artistic richness of the Renaissance cities and other destinations. In Italy, this included scagliola tables and pedestals mimicking marble as well as tabletops and wall panels embedded with pietra dura hard stone mosaics.
Furniture was also developed to display Grand Tour purchases in the owner’s home, presenting them as a cultivated and well-traveled person. Mahogany collector’s cabinets held objects like intaglio moldings of coins and seals while others had specialized drawers that framed pietra dura panels.
Many objects were specifically produced for Grand Tour collectors. Often accompanied by retinues on journeys lasting months or years, the elite travelers, the wealthiest of whom extended their trips to Egypt and the Holy Land, required artful personal mementos befitting the experience. For example, Grand Tour micromosaics — small artworks, most not more than two inches wide — arose from the entrepreneurial impulses of artisans who had trained in the Vatican’s workshops.
Grand Tour journeys would help inform a range of decorative styles such as neoclassical, Rococo and Adam style. (Architect and designer Robert Adam toured Italy and France for five years.) The Grand Tour flourished at a time of economic prosperity and political stability, but the French Revolution in 1789 brought it to an end. Yet as the tradition faded in popularity in England, the rising wealth of the United States led to an increase in tourism across the Atlantic and a similar passion for collecting to show one’s worldliness.
Find a collection of Grand Tour decorative objects, wall decorations, lighting and other furniture on 1stDibs.
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Style: Grand Tour
Pair Of Italian Scagliola Faux Porphyry Pedestals
Located in Essex, MA
Columnar form with ebonized capitals and base. Faux porphyry inspired by ancient Rome conquering Of Egypt and bringing its treasures to Rome.
Category
1850s Italian Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Plaster, Wood
Pair of Antique French Garden Cast Iron Half Round Urn Form Fluted Wall Planters
Located in St. Louis, MO
Pair of unusual early 20th century antique French cast iron half round demilune wall mounted urn form wall planters. Having traces of blue paint, e...
Category
1920s French Vintage Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Metal
Grand Tour Amphora Vase Decorated with Classical Figures
Located in Milford, NH
18th/19th century Grand Tour Amphora vase on hand wrought iron tripod base. Very good overall condition, with expected losses, great surface patina...
Category
19th Century Italian Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Wrought Iron
19th Century Devil Gargoyle Bracket
Located in Chillerton, Isle of Wight
19th Century Devil Gargoyle Bracket
This is a very old hard plaster wall bracket
The subject is a horned devil surrounded with grapes and vines
The Bracket is sound with the expec...
Category
19th Century Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Plaster
Monumental Carrara Marble Wall Mascaron of Poseidon
Located in Wormelow, Herefordshire
A large and monumental Italian carved Carrara marble mascaron of Poseidon or Neptune after the late 16th century ‘Fontana del Mascherone’ by Bartolomeo Bassi. At more than 90cm tall ...
Category
20th Century Italian Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Marble, Carrara Marble
Pair of Large Neoclassical Urns
Located in New York, NY
Pair of large neoclassical urns. Grand tour patinated copper craters after the antique with swan-form handles from Naples. Italy, early 19th century.
Dimension: 24.5" H x 15" D X 1...
Category
Early 19th Century Italian Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Copper
Antique Neoclassical Grand Tour Giltwood Architectural Columns, a Pair
Located in Elkhart, IN
A stunning pair of Grand Tour or Neoclassical gilt wood architectural tabletop columns.
Italy, Early 20th Century
Measures: 5.13"W x 5.13"D x 18.75"H.
Good vintage condition.
Category
Early 20th Century Italian Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Giltwood
Pair Of large Bronze Verdigris Planters
Located in Norwood, NJ
Beautiful pair of verdigris patinated bronze planters in the Grand Tour style. Decorated with acanthus leaves and scrolls and Satyr head mounted handles on either side.
Category
Early 20th Century Italian Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Bronze
Early 19th Century Empire Italian Marble Column
Located in Roma, IT
A beautiful, important column in black and white veined marble with a base and finial in pure white Carrara marble.
The veins combine in a fascinating weave to form an elegant abstra...
Category
Early 19th Century Italian Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Marble
Grand Tour Model
Located in Sturminster Marshall, Dorset
A fine Grand Tour design copy of the temple of Poseidon. The temple made in carved wood and specialist paint finished. The Temple is fixed to a 19th century wooden base which in turn...
Category
2010s British Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Mahogany
Antique Grand Tour Marble Campagna Pedestal Urn
Located in Wormelow, Herefordshire
An antique early 19th century marble campagna pedestal urn in the Grand Tour manner.
This urns gadrooned body is topped with a striking flared rim supported on a beautifully smooth ...
Category
Early 19th Century English Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Marble, Serpentine
Monumental Marble Inlaid Obelisks, Grand Tour Style
Located in El Monte, CA
Unique monumental Italian 19th Century Grand Tour Style Specimen marble inlaid obelisks. Marble is precisely cut and inlaid into a fine two-tone...
Category
20th Century European Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Marble
Antique Grand Tour Fragmentary Marble Sculpture of Aeschines
Located in Wormelow, Herefordshire
An antique Grand Tour style fragmentary white statuary marble sculpture of Aeschines, ancient Greek statesman and orator born in the 3rd century BC.
Displayed on a modern steel stan...
Category
Early 19th Century Italian Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Marble, Statuary Marble
Antique Marble Sculpture of Aphrodite on Column
Located in Wormelow, Herefordshire
A 19th century antique marble sculpture of Aphrodite also referred to as the ‘Crouching Venus’ on an octagonal pedestal. It is based on the antique Roman statue...
Category
19th Century Italian Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Marble, Statuary Marble
Antique Statue of a Shepherd Boy After Bertel Thorvaldsen
Located in Wormelow, Herefordshire
A 19th century terracotta depiction of a shepherd boy based on the marble statue by late 18th/early 19th century Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. This terracotta statue once resid...
Category
Early 19th Century English Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Terracotta
A Fine & Large 19th Century Grand Tour Serpentine Marble Socle, Italy Circa 1800
Located in Ottawa, Ontario
An impressively large mottled 'verde prato' serpentine socle of turned columnar form, rising from a stepped base to a flattened plateau above a cavetto-shaped edge. In relation to it...
Category
Early 19th Century Italian Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Marble, Serpentine
After the Antique, a Large 20th C Plaster Figure of a Discus Thrower
Located in Bagshot, GB
After the Antique, a large 20th C plaster figure of a discus thrower
20th century
(Pedestal not included), 100cm wide, 42cm deep, 168cm high (39in wide, 16 1/2in deep, 66in high) a...
Category
Mid-20th Century European Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Plaster
Early 19th Century Belgium Black and Rosso Antico Marble Tazza
Located in London, GB
With lobbed reeded body on waisted socle and stepped plinth base
Category
19th Century British Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Italian 19th century Grand Tour/Neo-Classical st Green Serpentine marble and urn
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
A very handsome and impressive Italian 19th century Grand Tour/Neo-Classical st. Green Serpentine marble and Ormolu urn. This decorative urn is raised by a square marble base with a ...
Category
19th Century Italian Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Marble, Serpentine, Ormolu
19th Century Antimony Charcoal Holder
Located in Catania, Sicilia
19th Century charcoal holder in antimony, Finely decorated. Period '800. Object not easy to find, used in noble homes in Sicily to heat the bedrooms.
Category
Mid-19th Century Italian Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Metal
Early 20th Century Mahogany Plinth in the Form of a Classical-Style Column
Located in Dublin 8, IE
Early 20th century mahogany plinth in the form of a classical-style fluted column with carved Ionic scrolling and Corinthian foliate detail to the capital.
Category
Early 20th Century Italian Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Mahogany
19th Century, Antique Sicilian Brass Knocker
Located in Catania, Sicilia
Antique Sicilian brass knocker from the end of the 19th century, ideal size for gates and large doors.
Category
Late 19th Century Italian Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Brass
Pair of column crowns in form of pine cones, symbol of luck, marble, 1920, Italy
Located in Wien, AT
A pair of wonderful, antique column crowns, decorative objects, hand-made in Italy, around 1920, in the Art Deco period, based on an antique model.
On a square marble base there is ...
Category
1920s Italian Vintage Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Carrara Marble
Pair of Italian Grand Tour Mahogany Wood & Bronze Roman Ruins Neoclassical Model
Located in New York, NY
A fantastic and rare pair of Italian Grand Tour mahogany wood and bronze roman ruins neoclassical models, circa late 19th century.
These are very rare and exceptionally made piece...
Category
Late 19th Century French Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Bronze
Italian Micromosaic and Specimen Marble Occasional Table
Located in Essex, MA
Circular top now cemented in a wrought iron base with scrolled legs. Top with central view of the Coliseum and surrounded by various hardstones including porphyry.
Category
1860s Italian Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Marble
19th century Grand Tour Green Marble Tazza Vase with Classical Carved Details
Located in Palm Desert, CA
A Grand Tour 19th century green marble tazza vase with classical carved motifs on tall pedestal. After a model of the renowned Warwick vase, this Grand Tour...
Category
19th Century Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Marble
Grand Tour Marble Columns, a Pair
Located in Dallas, TX
Provenance David J. Bikoff collection, Italy circa 1870 Made with different marbles.
Category
1870s Italian Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Marble
Pair 18th Century style Italian bronze fire dogs
Located in Brighton, Sussex
A spectacular pair of Italian 18th Century style bronze fire dogs, each depicting classical Roman figures, children playing below and raised on a pair of Dolphins.
Batch 81 63040. U...
Category
19th Century Italian Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Bronze
Grand Tour Columns, a Pair
Located in Tampa, FL
A pair of 1800s specimen marble grand tour columns.
Category
Early 1800s Italian Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Marble
Neoclassical Marble Statue of Rebecca at the Well
Located in Wormelow, Herefordshire
An antique Neoclassical statuary marble statue of Rebecca at the well, signed and dated 'ABO CIPRIANI FECE 1880', from a private collection in London.
Dating to circa 1880, this expe...
Category
Late 19th Century English Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Marble, Statuary Marble
Pair of French 19th Century Neoclassical St. Patinated Bronze and Ormolu Columns
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
An attractive and most decorative true pair of French 19th century Neoclassical st. Grand Tour patinated bronze and ormolu columns. Each column is raised by an elegant square base wi...
Category
19th Century French Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Bronze, Ormolu
Pair of Antique 19th Century Alabaster Poodles
Located in Wormelow, Herefordshire
A pair of antique late 19th century alabaster poodles. In a sophisticated seated stance, these striking statues are a perfect decorative pair to display in any home. The Italianate s...
Category
Mid-19th Century Italian Antique Grand Tour Building and Garden Elements
Materials
Alabaster
Grand Tour building and garden elements for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a broad range of unique Grand Tour building and garden elements for sale on 1stDibs. Many of these items were first offered in the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artisans have continued to produce works inspired by this style. If you’re looking to add vintage building and garden elements created in this style to your space, the works available on 1stDibs include building and garden elements, decorative objects, more furniture and collectibles and other home furnishings, frequently crafted with stone, metal and other materials. If you’re shopping for used Grand Tour building and garden elements made in a specific country, there are Europe, Italy, and France pieces for sale on 1stDibs. It’s true that these talented designers have at times inspired knockoffs, but our experienced specialists have partnered with only top vetted sellers to offer authentic pieces that come with a buyer protection guarantee. Prices for building and garden elements differ depending upon multiple factors, including designer, materials, construction methods, condition and provenance. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $278 and tops out at $108,390 while the average work can sell for $3,800.