Scagliola Game Table, 18th-19th Century

Details

Description

Scagliola games table with trompe-l'œil decoration

italy
scagliola, cherry
table top early 18th century, table base mid 19th century

dimensions: … Read more Scagliola games table with trompe-l'œil decoration

italy
scagliola, cherry
table top early 18th century, table base mid 19th century

dimensions: h x w x d: 79 x 113 x 67 cm

:
the table frame is made of solid cherry wood. The curved, sawn-out frames are mortised into the studs of the curved legs. This stable substructure supports the top of inlaid stucco marble, known as scagliola, which is framed by a cherry frame.

the panel is decorated with numerous inlaid playing cards. It appears to be a 32-card sheet of french origin with the inscription g.de paris and the names of jacks, queens and kings with great names from historical, mythological and biblical contexts. For example, we see alexandre - alexander the great, king of macedonia, césar - gaius julius caesar, roman general, pallas - pallas athena, greek goddess of wisdom, david - king david from the bible and hector - the trojan prince and hero from homer's "iliad" - to name but a few.
the cards lie in the middle of the pack, partly sorted by rank, partly still upside down in the pile. The 8 of spades lies torn into two halves in the centre of the action.

the black background appears to be made of granite. Like the entire plate, including the playing cards and the frame made of different coloured pieces of marble, this is the scagliola technique, which is rarely used today.
in this process, which was already in use in antiquity, the marble, which was very precious at the time, was imitated using a mixture of plaster, bone glue, water and colour pigments. Natural stones such as marble and granite could be perfectly imitated by colouring the plaster and twisting and kneading the mass together.
the structures are therefore not just painted on the surface, as with stucco lustro, but can be found in the entire mass, which has the advantage that the slab could be ground and polished. The individual pieces could be easily cut and joined together so that the observer can hardly distinguish a well-made scagliola panel from a pietra dura panel (real stone inlays).
and the stone surfaces of the present work are also deceptively real imitations; take a look at the black background, for example, which gives the impression of real granite stone with its many tiny light-coloured inclusions.

the scagliola technique had its heyday in the italian baroque period, when entire interiors were designed in this way. The advantages were obvious. The material could be produced on site and did not have long delivery routes, any colour and texture could be created, even those that did not occur in nature, and the relatively light material could be produced in any size, which made it suitable for wall panelling, high columns and ceiling cladding. It was also significantly cheaper than the painstakingly quarried and elaborately cut marble.
today, only a few people are still familiar with the production of scagliola, the so-called stucco marble. Due to the abandonment of such elaborate interior design in classicism and better and cheaper marble quarrying techniques from the age of industrialisation onwards, the scagliola technique fell out of fashion and this table is a rare example of this fascinating craft.

condition:
wonderful condition with an authentic patina of age. The table top is no longer high-gloss, as it certainly was originally, but has become matt over the years. All traces of age and use in the wood have been deliberately preserved and conserved. The surface has been gently cleaned and refreshed with shellac.

you can find out more about the scagliola technique in the following specialist literature:
hojer / ottomeyer - residenz münchen ii - die deutschen möbel des 16.-18. Jahrhunderts from. S. 57 See less