A WILLIAM IV GILTWOOD AND COMPOSITION, SCAGLIOLA AND PAINTED SIDE TABLE

This charming table top decorated with a scene is exemplary of the work of the Della Valle brothers. Pietro and his brother Giuseppe Della Valle were Italy's foremost scagliola artists of the mid-19th century. The brothers received silver and bronze medals in the exhibitions in Florence in 1839, 1841 and 1844 and one of their tables was honoured in the Great Exhibition in London in 1851. Comparable scagliola tops with beaded or `pearled' borders attributed to Pietro Della Valle, are illustrated in E. Colle, Il Mobile Impero in Italia, Arredi E Decorazioni d'Interni dal 1800 al 1843, London 2000, nr.73 and in A.M. Massinelli, Scagliola, L'arte della pietra di lina, Rome 1997, ill. 49 - 49b.

Related scagliola table tops with similar landscape views and pearled borders were sold from the collection of the Earl and Countess of Dunraven, Adare Manor, Co. Limerick, Christie's house sale, 9-10 June 1982, lot 302, and another possibly supplied to the 11th Viscount Kilmorey (d.1818) for Mourne Park, Co. Down, Christie's New York, 25 April 2008, lot 79.