Baroque Furniture

An impressive and finely carved pair of Italian 18th century Baroque st. Bras de Lumières. The pierced back plate is decorated with scrolled acanthus l...

A most decorative and very unique Italian 19th century Baroque style giltwood and glass cocktail table. The table is raised by richly carved X shaped supports with striking scrolled ...

An incredible Venetian, hand carved and gilded frame with original mirror glass with age appropriate loss. Pierced foliate designed crown.

A beautiful and most decorative pair of Italian 18th century Baroque st. Mecca mirrors. Each mirror retains its original mirror plate set within a fine mottled wrap around fillet. Th...

An elegant and very unique set of six Italian 19th century giltwood Venetian mirrors. Each lovely mirror with a scrolled oval shaped frame ha...

A North Italian green-painted and parcel-gilt settee from the mid-18th century. The serpentine padded backrest displays foliate scrolls on the top rail flanked by two scrolls above a...

Charming, beaded glass chandelier with amethyst and clear crystal tear drops and spheres. 6 lights. Wired for U.S. Measures: 46.5”H with adjustable chain and canopy. Chandelier only...

A most attractive Italian 18th century Baroque period Florentine rectangular mirror in ebony and giltwood. The ebony frame with a handsome mottled design has a very decorative and ri...

A high quality and extremely decorative early 19th century Italian Baroque giltwood chandelier. The chandelier with three different levels ...

19th century carved wood Italian urn mounted as lamp, silver leaf finish with nice old patina. Charming smaller scale.

19th century Italian doré bronze and crystal chandelier with amethyst accents.

Important six-arm chandelier finely crafted in Murano glass, featuring elegant acanthus leaf motifs and twisted "canna rigata" arms. The glass, hand-blown in Murano (Venice), is bea...

Spectacular pair of 18th century Italian prickets, great old worn finish/patina. Great scale and proportions.

PAIR OF ITALIAN TWO-LUME APPLIQUES 18th Century Italians, gilt carving with metal applications. Small defects. Dim.: 35 x 32 cm good conditions

A beautiful pair of Italian 18th century Baroque st. wrought iron, giltwood and pressed gilt metal candelabra lamps. Each seventeen arm lamp is raised by an elegant circular giltwood...

A most attractive pair of Italian mid 18th century Baroque st. giltwood mirrors. Each Venetian mirror retains its original mirror plates framed within a lovely mottled border. Below ...

A handsome and monumentally scaled pair of Italian early 19th century Baroque st. polychrome and giltwood sconces. Each impressive sconce is centered by a richly carved pierced botto...

Charming 19th century carved wood four arm candleabra in the form of a putti with silver leaf finish.

Among the most beautiful examples of hardstone artistry that have ever entered our collection, these important Grand Ducal pietre dure console tables are in a class all their own. Their powerful architectural elegance, impressive size and rarity make them two of the finest hardstone masterpieces ever created and quite possibly the greatest pair of pietre dure tables in existence. With their naturalistically rendered flowers and birds, these tabletop panels showcase the particularly fine quality craftsmanship of the Grand Ducal workshops in Florence during the first quarter of the 17th century. Grand Duke Ferdinando I de Medici, one of the most important personages in the annals of art history, established the Grand Ducal Workshop in 1588. The workshop specialized in the art of pietre dure developed from the ancient art of opus sectile, giving rise to the most luxurious and detailed examples of hardstone artistry ever produced. Its patrons were the Popes and Royals of Europe, and the quality of the objects produced in the workshop is without equal. Typically, because of the high level of workmanship the art form requires, pietre dure plaques were crafted in small sizes. The great majority of known examples of pietre dure are a fraction of the size of our grand tables. The combination of pietre dure and extensive use of other rare decorative hardstones such as lapis lazuli and pietra paesina or “ruin marble” meant that these tabletops were surely produced for a wealthy collector. The tables are further distinguished by their superbly carved bases by Andrea Brustolon, known as the “Michelangelo of wood.” Brustolon was a Venetian wood sculptor known for his exuberant and intricate Baroque furniture. His high Baroque style was influenced by his years studying in Rome, where he was exposed to the sculpture of Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Crafted in the early 18th century, these bases display Brusolon’s unmatched talent for both figural and foliate work, combining cupids, masks and oversized scrolling vines for a grand, ornate effect. Similar furnishings by Brustolon are held in museums worldwide, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, the National Museum of Scotland and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, while the Ca' Rezzonico Museum in Venice features an entire room dedicated to the sculptor. For approximately 150 years, these tables were part of the famed Stoneleigh Abbey collection owned by the Lord Leigh family. This renowned English country estate inspired Jane Austen to write Mansfield Park. Lord Leigh eventually sold the tables at Christie’s London in 1962, and the pair have stayed in the collection of the same Florentine family who purchased them from Christie's until we recently acquired them. Our tables are prominently pictured in the important Saul Levy book Il Mobile Veneziano del Settencento. The pietre dure plaques date circa 1625-1650. The decorative tops likely would have originally been sold with a pair of plain stone columns to display them, and Lord Leigh would have commissioned the custom bases from Brustolon circa 1714 when he added the impressive four-story fifteen-bay Baroque West Wing to Stoneleigh Abbey. A similar single Grand Ducal tabletop is in the United Kingdom’s National Trust Collection, and a smaller tabletop resides in Buckingham Palace. The flower and bird panels in our examples relate to the famous Badminton Cabinet...