Figure 1: Jacques Linard; Still Life with Shells and Coral, and a Box; 1640. According to the Ancient Greeks, after Perseus cut off Medusa’s head, he wished to cleanse himself of the act by bathing in the sea. He placed the head on a bed of seaweed, which upon contact was petrified and turned red. Thus is the myth of the origin of coral described. Figure 2: Cutting and Polishing Mediterranian Coral. Underwood & Underwood, 1906. Coral has been widely integrated into decorative objects in Italy from the Middle Ages, with rose-colored coral being the most highly prized. The red skeletons of these marine organisms were viewed as having protective and medicinal qualities, and were incorporated into amulets, jewelry and textiles. Coral was also thought to have to ability of detecting poison in food and was therefore used in the handles of cutlery. In the Renaissance, the Italian towns of Genoa and Trapani became the largest coral production centers and helped to popularize the material through carving. In the 17th century, coral was adopted as a prized material for inlay in jewelry and ecclesiastical and household objects. A Jacques Linard still life circa 1640, he places a vibrant red coral specimen in the center of the canvas (figure 1).

Figure 3: One of a pair of grisaille paintings by Fabrizio Clerici, 1960s. Coral continued to be used into the early 20th century as seen in figure 2, which shows the cutting and polishing of coral in a Trapani workshop in a photograph of 1906. It also figured predominantly as a gemstone in jewelry and other objet d’art, particularly during the Art Deco period. Figure 4: Cabinet painted by Fabrizio Clerici, 1950s. Mid-century Milanese artist, Fabrizio Clerici painted coral amid shells and driftwood in his trompe l’oeil creations, among those a painting currently in the Hobbs collection (figure 3) and a cabinet formerly in the collection (figure 4). Figure 5: An Unusual Pair of Coral Mounted Mirrors, circa 1940s. Carlton Hobbs LLC. A pair of mirrors in the Carlton Hobbs collection, circa 1940s, features coral as their main decorative element (figure 5). Furniture designers in the 1930s and 40s were using materials that were more plain and natural than the previous Art Nouveau movement, but that were nevertheless luxurious, such as rare inlaid woods, straw marquetry, and shagreen. In the present mirrors, small fragments of coral cover the frame and surround meandering bead and glass designs. They serve as  a fine example of how a raw materials were used to create new unusual designs that still maintained an element of restraint and tradition.

"Tops are often amont the finest artistic expressions of the period from which they date—whether pietre dure in the Renaissance, micromosaic in the Neoclassical period or rare marble slabs in the Baroque," says antiques dealer Carlton Hobbs. From May 13 through 22, Hobbs's Manhattan gallery is hosting a show of 25 tabletops featuring examples from each of those eras. Prices range from $84,000 to $1.65 million. The latter tag is attached to the Woodhall Park table, which has an Italian Renaissance pietre dure surface that bears striking similarities to the prized Farnese Table in New York's Metropolitan Museum. The piece mounts a side table attributed to the English designer Thomas Leverton (1743-1824).

While the art of crafting furniture and decorative objects from hardstones was already highly developed in Western Europe during the Renaissance, it was not until the mid-18th century, when St. Petersburg was being built, that the Russian lapidary arts began to flourish. In 1721, Peter the Great (1672-1725) founded the first imperial Russian lapidary at Peterhof, near St. Petersburg. “Under the monarchs who ruled Russia from the 1730s to the 1750s, the factory established itself as one of the leading creators of luxury goods in Eastern Europe,”1 with marbles and semiprecious stones brought to St. Petersburg from all corners of the Empire and beyond.

The art of crafting decorative objects from hardstones developed in Western Europe in the Renaissance, but in Russia, the lapidary arts did not flourish until the mid-18th century, when St. Petersburg was being built. Peter the Great founded the first imperial Russian lapidary in 1721. By 1800 Russia's rich mineral deposits were vastly exploited and countless varieties of stone were discovered; interest in geologic exploration was so intense it had been called "a common disease" by Empress Catherine the Great. This pair of candlesticks is an example of the early work of the Russian manufactories. A pair of columnar table decorations made at Kolyvan in 1790 for the Stroganoff Palace, now in The Hermitage, are a related example from the late 18th century. Both pairs use red jasper for the top and base, and quartz for the shaft. Count Alexander Stroganoff (1733-1811) was a great patron of the arts, president of the Imperial Academy of Arts and director of the Imperial Lapidary works.

The neoclassical style and architectural imagery of these later 18th-century marquetry commodes identify them as pieces designed and created by the artisans of the famous botteghe in Rolo, Italy, which by that time was known as the center for high-quality marquetry furniture. The Rolese workshops had been producing fine intarsia work since the 1400s, in the illusionistic style established by the brothers Cristoforo (1448-1491) and Lorenzo (1425-1477) Canozi da Lendinara. In the 18th-century, the entire region of Emilia-Romana had become a hub of neoclassicism, inspired by the arrival in 1753 of Ennemond-Alexandre Petitot to serve as court architect to the Duke of Parma. Under Petitot's influence, the artisans of Rolo began producing furniture that was neoclassical in form, but still decorated with Renaissance imagery inspired by the Lendinara brothers' work. The present commodes, with their rectilinear form and perspectival architectural decoration, are an example of this.

Spain. First Half Of The Seventeenth Century. The Bases Made For The Tops Circa 1720. These tables belong to an elite group of silver furniture that includes a very similar silver tabletop in the Victoria and Albert museum, a silver mirror in the Wallace collection, and a silver table in the Rijksmuseum. The popularity of valuable and ornate items of silver furniture amongst the nobility in the 16th and 17th centuries originated in Spain and was carried throughout Europe. Furniture made using silver was perhaps the most coveted of decorative art objects in European palaces beginning in the Renaissance. As its popularity became more widespread, a small number of European manufactories in Paris, Hamburg, Copenhagen and particularly Augsburg developed a reputation for the excellence of their craftsmanship in silver; however, the vogue for silver furniture first appeared in Spain in the second half of the 16th century.

During the Renaissance, panels and tabletops inlaid with semiprecious stone began to be produced in Italy, with materials and geometric designs derived from classical Roman motifs. The present tabletop, which was probably made in Rome around 1680, represents a complete departure from this tradition, since its design is an imitation in mosaic of ancient marble, possibly Egyptian alabaster or giallo antico. We know of no comparable example, and so believe this top to be probably unique. Egyptian alabaster, which can appear with a combination of opaque milky sections and yellow-orange-brown fibrous layers, was one of the stones most highly prized by ancient Romans, and was used in making many ritual objects. The ebonized base, which was made for the top in the 19th century, is reminiscent of mid-17th century designs for drawer-leaf tables found in the Netherlands and Sweden.