{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O157764"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O157764/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CC8167/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CC8167/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2009CC8167","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CP2638","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CP2594","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O157764/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O157764","accessionNumber":"LOAN:GILBERT.887:1, 2-2008","objectType":"Table","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Pietre dure means ‘hard stones’ in Italian. While stone mosaics existed since ancient times, the technique known as commessi di pietre dure, or shortened as pietre dure, was perfected, under the impulse of Ferdinando I de’ Medici (r.1587-1609), Grand Duke of Tuscany who united the city’s workshops and channelled their creativity into one organisation, the Galleria dei Lavori. \r\n\r\nSir Arthur Gilbert and his wife Rosalinde formed one of the world's great decorative art collections, including silver, mosaics, enamelled portrait miniatures and gold boxes. Arthur Gilbert donated his extraordinary collection to Britain in 1996.  Arthur Gilbert was also fascinated by the evolution of pietre dure and purposefully acquired 16th-century masterpieces as well as 20th-century creations.\r\n","physicalDescription":"Rectangular tabletop of black marble inlaid with a commesso panel (Stone mosaic)  depicting a still life of vases of flowers and neoclassical vases. The gilt wood table base is carved in the Renaissance-revival style and has four legs with scroll feet and a stretcher. The top section is on a hinge so that it could be inclined, thereby becoming a work of art to be appreciated like a painting on an easel.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"gilt wood","id":"x35094"},{"text":"hardstone","id":"x37572"},{"text":"limestone","id":"AAT11286"},{"text":"marble","id":"AAT11443"},{"text":"chalcedony","id":"AAT11134"},{"text":"malachite","id":"AAT11123"},{"text":"agate","id":"AAT11135"},{"text":"jasper","id":"AAT11151"},{"text":"rock crystal","id":"AAT11152"},{"text":"lapis lazuli","id":"AAT11122"},{"text":"serpentinite","id":"AAT210275"},{"text":"gabbro","id":"AAT11230"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"},{"text":"gilding","id":"AAT53789"},{"text":"pietre dure","id":"AAT53615"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Pietre dure and carved, gilt wood","categories":[{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2009CC8167","2009CP2638","2009CP2594"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"CNFR","id":"THES49206"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"CNFR","id":"THES49206"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"table top","id":""}],[{"text":"base","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"No","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Florence","id":"x28848"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1870","earliest":"1865-01-01","latest":"1874-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"950","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"5/9/22","earliest":"2022-09-05","latest":"2022-09-05"},"part":"","note":"Top set in stand"},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"586","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"5/9/22","earliest":"2022-09-05","latest":"2022-09-05"},"part":"","note":"Top set in stand"},{"dimension":"Width","value":"876","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"5/9/22","earliest":"2022-09-05","latest":"2022-09-05"},"part":"","note":"Top set in stand"},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"36","unit":"kg","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"07/06/2023","earliest":"2023-06-07","latest":"2023-06-07"},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"weighed by Tony Ryan June 2023","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"This hardstone table top demonstrates the interest in neoclassical themes associated with the designs of Antonio Cioci (died 1792) in late nineteenth-century Florentine private mosaic workshops; showing a synthesis of the most popular motifs used by the court workshops: flowers, the trompe l'oeil pearl necklace, the shell, the 'Roman' bronze lamp. The eye is tricked into believing that the objects are three-dimensional. \r\n\r\nThis table is typical of the revival in neoclassical themes in late nineteenth-century Florentine pietre dure. Neoclassical compositions, with vases all’antica after archaeological founds, were introduced to the Opificio by the painter Antonio Cioci (d. 1792), the first being a table top in porphyry, dated 1784, now in the Galleria Palatina, Florence.  He then added coral, pearls and shells to soften their disarming realism. These compositions were taken on by his successor, Carlo Carlieri, (active 1781-1822), whose designs were exclusively on paper instead of on canvas, and became much cherished under the Napoleonic Era – such as a table for Maria-Luisa of Bourbon, dated 1807, now in the Instituto Valencia de don Juan, Madrid. They were then revived under the direction of Nicolo Betti (active 1851-1876). In the meantime, private workshops flourished in Florence and created products of proven success, evocative of the Opificio’s masterpices: Still lifes with bouquets of flowers, accompanied with coral, shells, pearls and ribbons. They are usually on common and less costly black marble, but are sometimes found on porphyry ground.\n\r\nThis table can be compared with a table designed by Pasquale Orlandini and dated 1873, sold Sothebys’s London, 4 November 1988, lot 180. And another one from the Collection of Gianni Versace, sold Sotheby's, New York, May 21, 2005, lot 74.\r\n\r\nThe stand of the Gilbert table, in the Renaissance-revival style, remained fashionable until the early 20th century as demonstrated in photographs of the Ugolini workshop stand at the Paris Exposition Universelle, 1900 (Massinelli, 2000, p.14, fig.1).\r\n\r\n<u>Provenance</u>\nGwynby Antiques, Cleveland Heights, Ohio.\r\nAcquired from the above by Sir Arthur Gilbert, 1975.","historicalContext":"Similar to tabletop in Sale of Collection of Gianni Versace, Sotheby's, New York, May 21, 2005.","briefDescription":"Stone mosaic (Commesso) tabletop and gilt wood base,Florence, pietre dure, ca.1870\n","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Gonzalez-Palacios, Alvar and Steffi Röttgen with essays by Steffi Röttgen, Claudia Przyborowski; essays and new catalogue material translated by Alla Theodora Hall. <u>The Art of Mosaics: Selections from the Gilbert Collection</u>. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1982. 224 p., ill. Cat. no.108. ISBN 0875871097"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Irmas, Deborah. 'Pieces of a Lost Art: The Dazzling, Puzzling Gilbert Mosaics'. <u>Almanac</u>, vol. 18, no. 4.  Pennsylvania: Franklin Center, September/October 1986, ill. p. 3."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Mallett at Bourdon House, Sotheby's & Mallett, London, 9 March, 2007; lot 786, pp.146-147. (Similar to 1996.352  and 1996.241.)"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Massinelli, Anna Maria with contributions by Jeanette Hanisee Gabriel. <u>Hardstones: The Gilbert Collection</u>. London: Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd. in association with The Gilbert Collection, 2000. 329 p., ill. Cat. no. 36, pp. 109-110. ISBN 0856675105."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Schroder, Timothy, ed. <u>The Gilbert Collection at the V&A</u>. London (V&A Publishing) 2009, p. 71, plate 53. ISBN9781851775934"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"For further information about the making of pietre dure, see the video Making a Pietre Dure panel:\r\n\r\nhttp://web.archive.org/web/20230213102443/http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/videos/m/video-making-a-pietre-dure-panel."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"flowers","id":"x35571"},{"text":"necklace","id":"AAT46001"},{"text":"lamp","id":"x36234"},{"text":"tazza","id":"AAT197303"},{"text":"pearls","id":"x39965"},{"text":"vessels","id":"x35887"},{"text":"vase","id":"AAT132254"}],"contentConcepts":[{"text":"still life","id":"x35544"},{"text":"trompe-l'oeil","id":"AAT56506"}],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["LOAN:GILBERT.887:1-2008","LOAN:GILBERT.887:2-2008"],"accessionNumberNum":"887","accessionNumberPrefix":"LOAN:GILBERT","accessionYear":2008,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Arthur Gilbert Number","id":"THES50383"},"number":"MM 232"},{"type":{"text":"","id":""},"number":"SG 91"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","table top","base"],"assets":["2019LN9107","2019LN8764","2019LU8043","2019LU5567","2019LV1674","2019LW9264","2023NN2931"],"recordModificationDate":"2026-05-01","recordCreationDate":"2008-06-26","availableToBook":false}}