A GEORGE III SCAGLIOLA-INLAID MARBLE TABLE ON A REGENCY WHITE-PAINTED AND PARCEL-GILT BASE

This eliptic slab of statuary marble is inlaid in richly polychromed scagliola with a fan-scalloped demi-patera edged by an acanthus meander and within an outer ribbon-border with pearled black and gold ribbons, vines and flowers in the 'Etruscan' manner popularised by the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum. These flowered arabesque scrolls springing from acanthus buds were almost certainly inspired by antique vases and relate to the neck-band of a vase engraved by P. F Haynes in his Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities in the Collection of Sir William Hamilton of 1766-7.
It is, therefore, no small coincidence that John, 3rd Earl of Bute was entertained by Hamilton in Naples in 1769. In a letter to Hamilton of 17 January, Bute remarked that he 'intended to pass a few days at Naples; where I shall take the liberty of asking your advice Sir; with regard to some excursions I wish to make in that kingdom!' (F.Russell, John, 3rd Earl of Bute: Patron and Collector, forthcoming, p.85). Arriving on 14 February, Bute 'braved all the difficulties of Mount Vesuvius' and engaged Hamilton both to buy specimens of lava and commission Pietro Fabris to paint several views around Naples. However Bute's ill-health cut-short his stay, and he left Naples on 1 March for Rome and then on to Florence.

On his visit to Florence, Bute may well have seen the closely related Florentine scagliola table top supplied to the Pitti Palace, Florence. Consequently confiscated by Napoleon and now in the Grand Trianon (A. Gonzalez - Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto, Milan, 1987 vol. II, fig. 269), it was described in the Napoleonic inventory of 9 August 1801 as 'une Console en marbre blanc dans lequel on a incrusté des ornements arabesques en stuc. 1m 20cmt sur 60cmt'.

The Bute table top was almost certainly executed in England by the celebrated Italian scaglialisto Domenico Bartoli (fl. 1767-94) of Newport Street. Although it was his partner, John (Johan) Augustus Richter (fl. 1767-96) who patented the invention of inlaying scagliola in 1770, Richter apears almost exclusively to have been the financial arm of the partnership. With its 'Palmyreen' sunflower and Etruscan beaded borders, this slab certainly relates to Robert Adam's design 'of two Tables for the Salon the tops to be of Scagliola' of Luton Park (Sir John Soane Museum).However, although Bartoli and Richter worked extensively for Bute's architect Robert Adam, such as the pair of table tops for Nostell Priory executed in 1777 at a cost of 150 gns, an 'Etruscan' chimneypiece for 20 Portman square in 1775, and the Croome Court tables of 1768 (sold from the collection of the late Sir Charles Clore, Christie's London, 20 November 1986, lot 194), these commissions all corresponded directly to Adam designs.

This slab is directly related to the chimneypiece and demi-lune table top supplied by Bartoli to Brownlow, 9th Earl of Exeter, whom Bute may well have encountered on the Grand Tour, for the Third George Room at Burghley House, Lincolnshire. The chimneypiece, executed at a cost of £225 16s, the bill being dated 6 November 1784, is embellished with a related beaded border and arabesques. It is interesting, therefore, that Exeter, like Lord Mountstuart at Cardiff and Hill Street, had turned to Capability Brown for architectural improvements between 1756-78.

With its Grecian scrolled volutes and stiff leaf-cup tapering supports, the stand was almost certainly supplied under Sir Robert Smirke's direction, either for Cardiff Castle circa 1818 or Luton Park, which Smirke completed circa 1825-30.