An Italian carved giltwood console table, Genoa, circa 1760

The sculptural brilliance of Italy shines through in one of its most popular forms of formal furniture, the giltwood console table. These tables were conceived to be permanently mounted to a wall, and often stood on four legs due to the weight of the customary slab tops of attractive Italian marbles. From these base requirements flow considerable decorative variations throughout the eighteenth century as fashions evolved, but also from region to region within Italy. Genoa was so wealthy that the calibre of its fine furniture is often very high. While many examples of both Baroque and Rococo console tables in this style are more boldly theatrical, the present example is in a more delicate, open mode that recalls the tables made during the Régence period in France.

Several palatial interiors with period furnishings contain splendid giltwood console tables in this style. Genoa’s Palazzo Reale contains numerous examples, with a similar one in the Camera della Regina.¹ Also in Genoa is the Palazzo Carrega-Cataldi, also known as the Palazzo Tobia Pallavicino: this UNESCO World Heritage building has been home to the city’s Chamber of Commerce since 1922 and known for its astounding eighteenth-century interiors including its Galleria Dorata – two examples, placed below grand giltwood mirrors en suite, are pictured in Morazzoni’s seminal study of Genoese furniture.² Other examples are in the Roman palace of the old aristocratic Doria Pamphilj family, a clear reflection of the Genoese roots and identity of the family – of these, one of them in particular has a sensitive sculptural treatment of delicate flowers that is similar to the present lot.³ At auction, a few examples have been at Sotheby’s and Christie’s in recent decades.⁴

¹ L. Lodi, La Galleria di Palazzo Reale a Genova, Genoa, 1991, pl.X, though the table may have moved since 1991.

² G. Morazzoni, Il mobile Genovese, Milan, 1926, pp.109-110.

³ A. G-P, Il mobile a Liguria, Genoa, 1996, p.173, fig.203 for the example with the floral carving, and figs. 202 199, 219 and 220 for other comparable giltwood tables.

⁴ Sotheby’s New York, 2017, lot 26; Sotheby’s London, 14 June 2000, lot 10; Christie’s London, 7 December 2006, lot 261; Christie’s London, 16 November 2000, lot 172.