A PAIR OF IMPORTANT ITALIAN BAROQUE PARCEL-GILT EBONIZED AND CARVED CONSOLE TABLES Rome, circa 1700

The velvet-covered tops later. With scattered age and construction cacks, abrasions and dents. Carving with restored breaks; most to drapery, swags and putti. Carving with small losses at extremitites. One putto lacking one foot. Putti reinforced with metal brackets at apron. Scattered old worm damage; most to top, underside and underside of feet. Scattered chips and cracks to gesso. Regilt, gilding with losses, rubbing and surface dirt. Black paint refreshed, now with some rubbing and losses. In good overall condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Enrico Colle (Il mobile Barocco in Italia, Milan, 2000, no. 30, pp. 132-133) illustrates and discusses a related console table with the apron centered by a putto and described as Roman, late 17th/early 18th century.  The table is conceived in a similar form to the present one, though presented with a cabinet on stand, which Colle states were executed in Rome in the 17th and 18th century after tracing back the ideas drawn by architects and decoration formed in the school of Bernini.

For a comparable Roman composition, which shows as well the strong influence of sculptors on Roman Baroque furniture, see a related stand surmounted by a parcel-gilt cabinet modelled with a central supporting figure in carved and gilded limewood, formerly in the collection of Prince Cesare Ludocivo in Rome, and donated to The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Mme. Lilliana Terruzi (accession no. 1972-73).

These monumental and impressive tables were most probably originally conceived as stands for cabinets and can be dated to around 1700. Each with a serpentine-fronted, velvet-covered loose top, these consoles with their rich ornamentation and exuberantly sculpted foliage and putti, are characteristic of the grandeur of Italian baroque interiors, most definitely created for a palazzo, and most probably to conform to their architectural surroundings.

Furniture of this type recalls the Venetian sculptors Andrea Brustolon (1662-1732), and Antonio Coradini (1668-1752) and the Genoese master Filippo Parodi (1630-1702), a pupil of Bernini, although at the time, names were not really recorded. These tables are very Roman in their conception, with their ebonizing and parcel-gilt highlights.  Executed in the late 17th/early 18th century, they reflect the ideas drawn by architects and decoration formed in the school of Bernini.