A PAIR OF NORTH ITALIAN GILTWOOD AND ALABASTRO FIORITO CONSOLE TABLES

This particular type of consoles with inverted obelisk shaped legs found on this console table is typical of the production made in Piemonte and Liguria of the first decades of the 18th century.  They were manufactured by Court carvers and sculptors mainly as part of the palatial furnishings of the Savoy residences around Turin, and the Genoese production was closely related, incorporating often doplhins and aquatic motifs to the decorative scheme.  Related models are those in the Palazzo Reale of Turin, Camera dell'Alcova, illustrated in R. Antonetto, Minusieri ed Ebanisti del Piemonte, Torino, 1985, p. 195, ill 270;  while another example also in Palazzo Reale, in the Sala dei Paggi shares a similar decorative scheme (see V. Viale, Mostra del Barocco Piemontese, exhibition catalogue, 1963, pl. 53).