A north Italian giltwood side table. Genoa, circa 1730. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2012.

With verde antico marble top above a pierced frieze with grotesque masks and a central female mask on female caryatid supports, joined by an elaborate stretcher with central Bacchic putto, replacements to carving of frieze, 37.1/2 in. (95 cm.) high, 72 in. (183 cm.) wide, 35.3/4 in. (91 cm.) deep. Lot 1141. Estimate: $70,000 – 100,000.

Provenance: Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 15 December 1994, lot 560. 

Notes: This majestic console table, with nymph-like caryatids emerging from acanthus accompanied by playfully floating putti and vigorous strapwork and masks, displays all the richness and grandeur of the court carvers of Genoa of the 1730's. The use of figures emerging from foliage is a particular leitmotif of their work and is seen on a table of slightly later date and carved with the four seasons in the Palazzo Reale, Genoa, and also on another related Genoese console in the Palazzo Reale, Turin (see A. González-Palacios, Il Mobile in Liguria, 1996, figs. 175-6 and 165). The same motif of nymphs emerging from acanthus also features on a celebrated suite of furniture made for the Galleria Dorata of the Palazzo Carrega in Genoa, including a pair of consoles (one of which is now in the Toledo Museum of Art) and a set of doors (two of which are now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), illustrated in González-Palacios op. cit., figs 188-190. 

Christie's. A Taste for Luxury: Two Great Houses from America's Gilded Age. 21 June 2012. New York, Rockefeller Plaza