REGENCY CARVED AND PAINTED WOOD AND GESSO SCAGLIOLA CONSOLE TABLE
EARLY 19TH CENTURY
£5,040
Auction: Day 1
Description
the pink marble top above an egg-and-dart and stiff leaf frieze, raised on lion monopodia painted to simulate bronze
Dimensions
104cm wide, 87cm high, 43cm deep
Footnote
Note: The rediscovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 1748 sparked a desire for Classical motifs in late 18th and early 19th century furniture design. Roman furniture made of bronze and marble survived the inferno of Vesuvius, buried for millennia by volcanic ash. Their discovery lead to a flurry of designs based on the Roman antique for those inspired by the Grand Tour. The lion monopodia, along with the female caryatid, were heavily used by the Romans and served to reinforce the notion of strength within the composition. Many examples of excavated tables used lion motifs, such as the solid bronze lion paw tripod centre table, unearthed in the House of Fabius Rufus, now on display in Parco Archeologico di Pompei (Acces. No. 13108). A marble tripod table with very similar lion monopodia to this piece was also discovered at Pompeii and now residues in the Naples Archaeological Museum. The designer of this console table clearly understood the antique antecedents, here using materials to simulate the bronze and marble of the originals.