An Italian giltwood console table, Genoa, circa 1780

The architectural structure of this console table joins a small group of console tables typical of the Genoese craftsmanship in the late 18^th century. With marble tops supported by two or sometime even only one leg, these console tables were often surmounted by a mirror featuring related mouldings. A related giltwood example also on a simulated marble platform base and with egg and dart friezes, fluting and acanthus leaves is illustrated in Alvar González-Palacios, Il Mobile in Liguria, 1996, p.305, fig.357. Another example can be studied in Enrico Colle, Il Mobile Neoclassico in Italia, 2005, p.393. Another key element of these tables is scrolls centred by a rosette underneath the table top and the first few bands of friezes of the console tables.

This architectural scheme, as Colle suggests, appears to rely on the models developed by some Genoese ornamentists, active at that time and adapting the most illustrious city palaces to neoclassical taste and in turn inspired by the designs of French ornamentists such as Jean-Charles Delafosse (1734-1789). Among the Italians were the Cantoni brothers and Andrea Tagliafichi, former pupil and collaborator of the famous Parisian architect Charles De Wailly.