A VENETIAN GILT, COLOURED, AVENTURINE AND CHALCEDONY GLASS-INLAID BLACK MARBLE AND GILTWOOD CENTRE TABLE

The present table-top is a fine example of the glass mosaic art which was revived in Venice during the second half of the 19th century. In 1856, having already invented a new process for the manufacture of gold and silver smalti, Lorenzo Radi (d. 1874), a Venetian glass technician, rediscovered the lost process needed to recreate calcedonio (chalcedony) glass, imitating striated agate. Three years later, Antonio Salviati (d. 1890), a wealthy lawyer appalled by the dire condition of the lagoon city's principal buildings, in particular the antique mosaic decoration of the Basilica di San Marco, established a company dedicated to the production and restoration of mosaics. In collaboration with Radi, what began as the manufacture of smalti and of large scale mosaics for churches and public buildings, rapidly became a commercially successful enterprise producing all manner of decorative objects in blown glass or mosaic. The firm's wares were shown at the influential London International Exhibition held in 1862, and among the highlights of their exhibit was a carved table featuring a mosaic top not dissimilar to the present fine example in its geometric Moorish design and inclusion of chalcedony glass and gold smalti (see J. Meyer, Great Exhibitions, 1851-1900, Woodbridge, 2006, p. 144).