Grand Tour Specimen Marble Table with Scenes from Rome

Italian Grand Tour pietra dura specimen marble chess / checkers game board, rare and ancient marble squares, Italy, 1820s

A pair of Grand Tour bronze tazzas raised on stepped sienna marble plinths and mounted on sienna marble bases with bronze molding. Circa 1820, Italy.

Louis XV grey painted games / card table with black leather playing surface with embossed / tooled center decoration and border, four (4) small drawers, one (1) on each side for each...

Grand Tour Souviner / patinated bronze sculpture of Greek Tragedian (playwright) Sophocles (479 BC-406 BC).

A beautiful Louis XV French 18th century giltwood console table with marble top. Heavily carved and pierced front apron. Two carved front legs curving into a carved shell motif. The ...

pair of Neoclassic-style console tables, polychromed and gilded wood with painted faux marble tops, gilt garland swags, spiral carved legs. Italy, circa 1875

This is a rare and superb survival. Not merely do we have this intricately inlaid parquetry top, resplendent with various coloured marbles, but we even have the original walnut cente...

A stunning vintage Italian Empire Grand Tour style specimen marble 'pietra dura' table. Topped with a spectacular exhibition quality round specimen marble slab, featuring a large va...

A Grand Tour specimen marble table top with an English specimen wood base, the circular top inlaid with a flowerhead pattern in an extensive ...

A grand tour circular table top Possibly by Domenico Moglia The circular platform of marmore nero, inset with fine micromosaic panels consisting of hundreds of coloured glass tesserae; a central flower bouquet sit within a malachite border surrounded by a border including four cartouches in conforming malachite reserves representing Roman views including the Arch of Titus, the Temple of Vesta, the Capitoline Hill, and the Tomb of Cecilia Metella, connected by floral garlands. Italy, circa 1855 Domenico Moglia (1780 - 1862) Brothers, Luigi and Domenico Moglia, are celebrated as two of the few great mosaicists of the 19th century. Both are recorded as exhibiting at the 1851 Great Exhibition, London. Domenico's work included micromosaics plaques depicting views of 'the roman forum', 'the colosseum', and the 'temples of Paestum.' The Lombardi Museum contains a collection of architectural...

This a very beautiful Victorian pietra dura and burr walnut occasional/games table. The table stands on three shaped and foliate carved legs which support a clover leaf shaped platform with three turned and foliate carved columns rising up to a solid veneered top with a moulded edge which is recessed to take the circular slate and specimen marble pietra dura top which is decorated with a bold geometric ribboned boarder and a circular centre inlaid with specimen marbles in a square chessboard pattern making this useful table both an occasional table for lamps etc. and also a games table for chess...

An unusual George IV specimen marble backgammon table attributed to Gillows. This rectangular table is strongly attributed to Gillows. It has a rectangular top inlaid with a central chess board flanked by two backgammon fields, all inlaid with a multitude of specimen marbles. One edge carved and gilded with the Latin motto ‘Turpe est in patria vivere et patriam ignorare’. The oak base has a drawer for cards and playing pieces, all raised on a square section support with four splayed legs and the original brass castors. English, circa 1830. Provenance: Geoffrey Bennison Ltd, London, November 1983 The Mermaid House Collection, St. John’s Wood, London Property of a gentleman Private American collection The form of the base of this table is related to several known Gillows commissions from the late Regency period and the quality of the cabinet work also suggests that firm attribution to the firm. Backgammon tables, rather than more general games tables, are unusual at this date and the use of inlaid specimen marbles in the top suggests a client of wealth. Additionally, the Latin text on the edge of the table provides further clues. The text, Turpe est in patria vivere et patriam ignorare, translates as “it is shameful to live in your homeland and not know it”. This phrase dates back to antiquity but rose to prominence once again in the mid-18th century when used by the botanist and key Enlightenment figure Carl Linnaeus in his work on the native flora of Sweden. The combination of this phrase and the use of native English timbers and marbles is promoting English raw materials and craftsmanship at a time when the noble and the wealthy were focussed on European pietra dura tables. Mermaid House in St John’s Wood was re-designed by Chester Jones...