Grand Ducal Pietre Dure Console Tables

Among the most beautiful examples of hardstone artistry ever to enter our collection, these important Grand Ducal pietre dure console tables possess exceptional architectural presence, scale and rarity. Their monumental Florentine tops and elaborately carved Venetian bases distinguish them as two of the finest hardstone masterpieces of their kind and quite possibly the greatest pair of pietre dure tables in existence.

Naturalistically rendered flowers and birds reveal the exceptional craftsmanship of Florence’s Grand Ducal Workshops during the first half of the 17th century. Grand Duke Ferdinando I de’ Medici established the workshops in 1588 to advance the art of pietre dure, a technique derived from the ancient Roman practice of opus sectile in which precisely cut stones are fitted together to form intricate images. Patronized by Europe’s popes and royal families, the workshops produced hardstone objects of unrivaled refinement.

Because pietre dure demands extraordinary precision and labor, most surviving plaques are only a fraction of the size of these monumental tabletops. Their extensive use of precious and unusual stones, including lapis lazuli and pietra paesina, or “ruin marble,” further indicates that they were created for a patron of exceptional wealth and status.

The tables are further distinguished by their superbly carved bases by Andrea Brustolon, the celebrated Venetian sculptor known as the “Michelangelo of wood.” Brustolon’s exuberant Baroque furniture reflects the influence of his years in Rome, where he encountered the sculpture of Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Crafted in the early 18th century, these bases demonstrate his command of both figural and foliate carving, uniting putti, masks and monumental scrolling vines in a richly sculptural composition. Important works by Brustolon are held by the Victoria and Albert Museum, National Museums Scotland and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, while Venice’s Ca’ Rezzonico preserves an entire room devoted to his furniture.

For approximately 250 years, the tables formed part of the celebrated collection at Stoneleigh Abbey, the ancestral seat of the Leigh family. The Warwickshire estate, which Jane Austen visited in 1806, is associated with the country-house setting of Mansfield Park. Lord Leigh sold the tables at Christie’s London in 1962, when they were acquired by a Florentine family in whose collection they remained until their recent acquisition by M.S. Rau.

The tables are prominently illustrated in Saul Levy’s authoritative volume Il Mobile Veneziano del Settecento. The pietre dure tops date to circa 1625–1650 and were likely first displayed on comparatively restrained stone supports. Lord Leigh is believed to have commissioned Brustolon to create the present bases circa 1714, when Stoneleigh Abbey’s imposing four-story, 15-bay Baroque west wing was added.

Comparable Grand Ducal tabletops are preserved in the collections of the National Trust and Buckingham Palace. The floral and avian panels on the present examples also relate closely to those adorning the celebrated Badminton Cabinet, another masterpiece of the Grand Ducal Workshops. The cabinet established a world auction record for furniture when it sold for $16.59 million in 1990 and surpassed its own record in 2004 with a price of approximately $36 million.

The union of monumental Florentine pietre dure panels, masterfully carved bases by Andrea Brustolon and an unbroken association with one of England’s great titled estates places this pair in a class of its own. Few surviving works combine hardstone artistry and Baroque wood carving on this scale, with such distinguished authorship and provenance.

Pietre dure tops: circa 1625-1650
Bases: circa 1714

Each table 61 1/4" wide x 39" deep x 36" high