Ancient Rome and the revival of ancient skills,’ the 17th century they have been buying these Collectors’ Focus says William Strafford, a senior specialist pieces. In the 18th century, with the grand in European furniture and decorative arts tour, the market was huge.’ He tells me that at Christie’s. ‘Through the reuse of ancient the English valued pietra dura so highly that Pietra Dura stones, it offered Renaissance patrons a magi- they would have the pieces mounted in fur- cal connection with antiquity. It also appealed niture created by the finest Italian or English to princes who combined an interest in scien- craftsmen. Sotheby’s London will offer two Emma Crichton-Miller tific marvels with a delight in cultural wonders figurative pietra dura panels dated to 1704 and painting. It was an elite production then by Baccio Cappelli (who also made panels The Renaissance craze for pietra dura was driven by elite patrons and has remained one of the pinnacles of for the Badminton Cabinet) in its Treasures such as the Medici, Borghese and Grimani families. Today the elite collecting.’ Testimony to this is that the sale on 4 July (estimate £40,000–£60,000). most expensive decorative work of art ever Birmingham-based Thomas Coulborn market for this opulent art form is expanding, with burgeoning sold at auction is the Badminton Cabinet, & Sons is bringing a remarkable collection, interest from Russia, Asia and the Middle East which sold at Christie’s London in 2004 for just priced at £175,000, of 23 highly decorative over £19m (Fig. 2). Commissioned by Henry pietra dura panels to Masterpiece London. Somerset, 3rd Duke of Beaufort, it was made Depicting birds and flowers, they were made in the Galleria dei Lavori between 1726 and in the Florentine workshops around 1650 1732, under the supervision of the renowned (Fig. 3). ‘Collectors today are blown away Foggini family. Strafford says that the market by the complexity of the technique, which has always been strong for exceptional pieces celebrates both the wondrous raw material in France, Germany, the UK and the US, but and the artistry of the carver,’ says Jona- that with the rapid recent expansion of the than Coulborn. He finds that ‘the technical art market, there has been interest from Latin brilliance of the early pieces is a great help America and Asia. He reports that in 2012 a 2. The Badminton Cabinet, 1720–32, Baccio in distinguishing 17th-century from later pietra dura and ebony casket on an enamel- Cappelli, with bronze figures by Girolamo Ticciati panels’. He also has an elegant George II (1676–1744), pietra dura panels, ebony and ormolu, mounted stand, made in Florence around ht 386cm. Christie’s London, £19m mahogany cabinet and stand created around 1710–20, sold at Christie’s London to an Asian 1755 to display 16 pictorial Florentine panels buyer for £657,250. ‘It married exceptional from the late 17th century (£275,000), and an craftsmanship with precious materials and ornate gilt casket made in England around an appealing trompe l’oeil conceit,’ he says. 1856–60, which incorporates 16th-, 17th- and João Magalhães, Sotheby’s senior specialist 19th-century Florentine pietra dura panels in continental furniture, notes that it was in the (£125,000). London-based Butchoff Antiques, late 17th century, when Giovanni Battista Fog- also exhibiting at Masterpiece, often stocks gini (1652–1725) took charge of the Galleria dei pieces incorporating 19th-century Floren- Lavori, that Florentine craftsmanship reached tine pietra dura. ‘Over the last 10 years there its apex. ‘The technique became exceptional has been a renaissance of interest in black and the designers more ambitious,’ he says. furniture as a whole,’ says Butchoff’s James Recently collectors have shown an interest in Kaye, ‘including ebonised pietra dura pieces, earlier pieces, before the techniques of Roman especially among Russian and Middle East- and Florentine craftsmen became differenti- ern buyers.’ The dealership has also sold ated. In July 2015 a pair of cabinets probably three specimen tabletops, designed purely commissioned by a member of the Borghese to show off different types of marble, with family around 1625 were bought for £1.3m in no addition of precious stones, in the last Panel depicting a parrot, c. 1650, Florence, London. (They were later acquired by the Fitz- 3. few months. These were hugely popular in pietra dura, 30 × 24 × 2.3cm. Thomas Coulborn & william after being export-stopped.) In 2016 Sons, £175,000 (collection of 23 panels) England in the 1820s and 1830s, and in Paris another splendid Borghese cabinet from the in the 1850s through to the 1870s. 1. The Grand Duke Francesco I de’ Medici Tabletop, c. 1568–77, Bernardino Porfirio da Leccio (active 1557–88), Robert de Balkany collection, dated around ‘People in the past knew hugely more Florence, pietra dura set into white marble support on an English giltwood stand, length 160cm. Burzio, £8m 1620 and later owned by George IV, sold to about stones and geology than we do and the Getty for €2.5m in Paris. And in December were fascinated by them,’ says London dealer isitors to the stand of Robilant + Voena realised by the gem carver Bernardino Porfirio Renaissance craze for true pietra dura, using 2015 the Grimani Tables, two exquisitely pat- James Graham-Stewart. He occasionally has a at this year’s TEFAF Maastricht were da Leccio between 1568 and 1577. It is one of precious hard stones. In 1588 Francesco’s terned tabletops carved from antique marble Roman specimen tabletop. ‘The collector mar- Vastonished by a Renaissance tabletop only three known examples of pietra dura tables younger brother, Ferdinando, founded the and inlaid with pietra dura between 1580 and ket is all about outstanding quality,’ he says. on display. Constructed of hardstones – includ- to date from the 16th century – another, made Galleria dei Lavori, a collection of workshops 1620, sold for a combined total of £5.1m. London-based Benappi Fine Art will show ing lapis lazuli, jasper and agate – inlaid in for Philip II of Spain in 1587, is now in the Prado. patronised by the court, with the Opificio Part of the appeal of the more expensive an exceptional inlaid marble tabletop dated white marble in an elaborate pattern, this rare Priced at £8m, it will again be displayed by delle Pietre Dure (as it was renamed in the of the two (£3.5m) may have been the very 1565–68 during London Art Week (29 June–6 example of Florentine pietra dura was once Robilant + Voena at Masterpiece London later mid 1800s) dedicated entirely to this new pure provenance. Inlaid with the arms and July). This elegant geometric piece shows off owned by the 1st Duke of Westminster. Luca this month (Fig. 1; 28 June–4 July). art form. Despite competition from Rudolf symbols of the Grimani, a prominent Vene- the beauty of various antique marbles and is Burzio, the Italian dealer who has brought it A taste for objects made from cut pieces of II’s Castrucci workshop in Prague and Louis tian family, the tabletop’s ownership can be from the same period as Vasari’s ‘tavolino di to market, prefers to call it ‘il tavolino di gioie’, antique marble had begun in early 16th-cen- XIV’s Gobelins factory, both headed by Italian traced by descent through the Grimani family gioie’. It has recently been attributed to Jean which is how Vasari describes it in the second tury Rome while Francesco’s father, Cosimo craftsmen, it is Florentine workmanship above until bought in 1829 by the Earl of Warwick for Ménard (active from 1552), Michelangelo’s edition of his Lives. It was Vasari himself who I, had a passion for hardstone vases carved all which has been sought after ever since. Warwick Castle, from where it was acquired marble cutter. ‘We normally focus on paintings designed it for Francesco I de’ Medici, Grand from Persian lapis lazuli or rock crystal. This ‘Pietra dura was bound in to the central by the vendor. ‘The English have had a very and sculptures but this is of an utmost qual- Duke of Tuscany, and it was almost certainly table, however, marks the beginning of the concept of the Renaissance – the rebirth of important role to play,’ says Magalhães. ‘Since ity,’ says gallery manager Harry Gready. o

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