AN ITALIAN PIETRA DURA, GILT-BRONZE MOUNTED AND INLAID EBONY TABLE CABINET

SECOND HALF 17TH CENTURY

Details

AN ITALIAN PIETRA DURA, GILT-BRONZE MOUNTED AND INLAID EBONY TABLE CABINET
SECOND HALF 17TH CENTURY
Inset and inlaid with lapis lazuli, jaspers, agates, and amethyst, in the form of an architectural clock case, the split pedimented top above a lapis lazuli dial flanked by Composite columns, above a stepped plinth with a drawer, mounted with panels of fruiting and foliate branches, on bun feet, with losses to the pietra dura, applied with blue-bordered circular label inscribed '249', lacking movement, restorations and subsequent alterations to the internal arrangement
23 ½ in. (59.5 cm.) high; 15 ¾ in. (40 cm.) wide; 12 in. (30.5 cm.) deep

Provenance

Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild, Mentmore Towers, Buckinghamshire, and by descent to his daughter,
Hannah de Rothschild, who became Countess of Rosebery upon her marriage in 1878 to Archibald Philip, the 5th Earl of Rosebery, thence by descent,
The 6th Earl of Rosebery; Sotheby's house sale, Mentmore Towers, Buckinghamshire, 24 May 1977, lot 1055.

Literature

Mentmore, privately printed catalogue, 1884, vol. II, The Limoges Room, p. 98, no. 10.

Lot Essay

The art collections at Mentmore were amongst the most outstanding of their kind anywhere in the world, prompting Lady Eastlake to comment: 'I do not believe that the Medici were ever so lodged at the height of their glory'. Mentmore was built between 1852 and 1854 by Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild, who needed a house near to London and in close proximity to other Rothschild homes at Tring, Ascot, Aston Clinton and later Waddesdon and Halton House. The plans for the mansion imitated Wollaton Hall in Nottingham and were drawn up by the gardener turned architect Joseph Paxton, celebrated for his Crystal Palace, completed the year earlier. Sumptuously furnished with extraordinary works of art in every field, on his death in 1874, Baron Mayer left Mentmore and a fortune of some £2,000,000 to his daughter, Hannah de Rothschild. Four years later Hannah married Archibald Philip, 5th Earl of Rosebery, who added considerably to the collections assembled by his father-in-law and it remained intact until the dispersal of the contents in 1977.