Scagliola Furniture

Antique, new and vintage scagliola furniture and decorative objects still captivate as they did in the 17th century.

It looks like marble, but it isn’t stone, and it’s not found in nature. In fact, this decorative plaster is perhaps even cooler than marble — let’s call it the swirly faux marble that you never knew you loved.

Scagliola has a venerable pedigree and a look that conjures exotic palaces. But today it’s found new and ingenious applications in the shops of cutting-edge makers like Francis Sultana, Cupioli Luxury Living and Odd Matter, which employ the plaster to create vibrant seating, trippy coffee tables and sausage-shaped benches.

Scagliola, whose name comes from the Italian scaglia, meaning “chips,” dates back to ancient times. The Egyptians used a complex mixture of plaster, water, glue and pigment to coat the walls of tombs. The Greeks lined aqueducts with a similar material.

Details about such early applications are hazy, but most scholars agree that the scagliola technique was revived in Italy during the Renaissance, used by monks as an affordable way to restore decorative details in their monasteries; in the early 17th century, artist Guido Fassi was among the first to employ it for inlaid altar panels. By the 18th century, scagliola was also a mainstay in architecture. The Music Room of Buckingham Palace features John Nash’s bold columns of fake lapis lazuli. And the ceilings of baroque churches in Britain, Austria and Germany dazzle with heavenly scagliola clouds.

Lodovico Cupioli, founder of Cupioli Luxury Living, became captivated by inlaid scagliola work in the 1950s, while restoring antique tables and altar frontals damaged in the war. Today, Cupioli Luxury Living — led by Luca and Sonia Cupioli, the children of Lodovico and his brother, Renzo — marries the ancient craft with a decidedly modern look.

Find antique, new and vintage scagliola tables, storage cabinets and other furniture on 1stDibs.