A rare Italian trompe l'oeil scagliola panel depicting the Americas signed Carles Gibertoni and dated 1699, Tuscan

Comparative Literature:
Enrico Colle, Il Mobili di Palazzo Pitti, Il Periodo dei Medici, 1537-1737, Florence, 1997, p. 174, for another related top by Gibertoni with a geographical map, (Private collection).
Graziano Manni, I Maestri della Scagliola in Emilia Romagna e Marche , Modena, MCMXCVII, pp 78-81inc. 

It would appear that Carlo Gibertoni was the first artist in scagliola to create scagliola tops featuring cartographical compositions. The taste for such tops was driven by the systematic mapping of distant parts of the globe in the 17th century and resulted in their dissemination throughout Italy, France and England. The French inscription on this top and on some of the illustrated examples would seem to indicate that they were commissioned by French clients.  Manni, op. cit.. p.80-81, illustrates related tops by the same maker including:
-p. 80, figs. 61-61- a top (on a base) signed and dated 1695 depicting India (sold as lot 363, Sotheby's Milan, 11th June 1997).
-p. 81, figs. 63-64, a pair of tables with tops both signed and dated 1695, depicting America and Asia, originally from the Strozzi Sacrati collection,(sold as lot 326, Sotheby's, Milan, 15th December 1992). It was dedicated to Princess Violante Beatrice of Bavaria, who in 1688 married Ferdinando dei Medici  (1672-1731).

Gibertoni produced other table tops with sheet music and playing cards as well as cartography compositions, but this type of scagliola with maps was not only produced by Tuscan scagliola makers. Lorenzo Bonucelli, working in Turin from 1685 to 1707, produced a top depicting Turin during the siege in 1706 for Vittorio Amadeo II. Related tops with maps and playing cards (though not attributed) are at Wilton House in Wiltshire,  Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, Villa Albani, Rome and Palazzo Piccolomini, Pienza. 

Carlo Gibertoni (Carpi 1635-1696):
There is a paucity of information on this maker although it is known that he was born in Carpi in 1635. He is often confused with the contemporaneous maker Carlo Francesco Gibertoni. The maker of this top, however, was probably influenced by the Emilian Fassi scagliola school, especially by Annibale Griffoni, who had an important role in disseminating the art of scagliola making in Tuscany. A document in the Archivio di Stato di Modena reveals that in 1686 and 1687 Gibertoni presented a petition to the Duke of Modena to re-enter into the state, as for 20 years he suffered banishment, after been accused of homicide (around 1666).