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 Tops Probably Italian. Eighteenth Century. The Bases English. Nineteenth Century. The present pair of tabletops is a fine example of the use of legno silicizzato, or silicified wood, in furniture. These fossils, which usually date from the late Triassic period, were prized for having the strength typical of hardstones, along with the well-preserved and attractive appearance of the plants they originally were. The extremely slow process by which the wood is silicified, replacing the organic cells with minerals over millions of years, results in an opaque or translucent stone with a recognizable grain pattern, in colors ranging from white to shades of brown or green. The unmistakable wood patterns seen in specimens of legno silicizzato undoubtedly contributed to their use in early furniture, for scientific interest as well as for their decorative appeal. One of the most famous examples of a fossilized wood tabletop is found on a guéridon in the collection of Versailles.

The extremely fine tops to the present tables are geologically interesting, made from lumachella, derived from the Italian word for “snail” (lumaca). The stone is largely composed of marine fossil shells of two kinds, small ovoid gastropods (sea snails) about 1/2-inch long and larger oysters. The latter show up as irregular pale brown fibrous patches or accurate shapes. The slabs have been cut parallel to the natural bedding of the stone and thus represent a section of the sea floor. This stone is a rare sample and its distinctly green ground color suggests that it was mined in Tunisia and is of a type referred to as “lumachella orientale.” The extraordinary bases, with their bold stylized organic legs, united by stretchers bearing tasseled fabric ties, date from around 1700, and have no design precedent in the cannon of Roman baroque furniture. Their highly unusual form would have been well-suited to the extravagance of the Palazzo Colonna where they once stood.

The design of the present tables can confidently be attributed to the celebrated J.C. Lillie (1760-1827), the most prominent furniture designer in Denmark during the late 18th and early 19th century, who was appointed to the newly-created post of Architect and Designer to the Danish Court in November 1790. The form of the present tables is closely related to a console-table, “undoubtedly designed and supplied by Lillie” in 1793 for the “Haunted Room” at the private residence of Liselund. The use of spirals on the legs of tables was a recurrent motif in Lillie’s oeuvre.
The tops of the present tables seem likely to be the work of Giuseppe Canart (d. 1791),4 the Roman craftsman whose known commissions were predominantly in Naples. The composition of the top is similar in that it incorporates specimens, primarily of volcanic stones, inside a complex interlaced framework composed of overlapping and interlocking rings with a black border to the edge.

The Mughal term "parchin kari" translates literally to "driven-in", and this technique of pietre dure inlay developed independently in India, at the court of Shah Jahan, the 17th-century Mughal emperor. At this time, architecture was evolving from grounds of red sandstone to white marble, and from relief carving to inlay with semiprecious stones in floral and arabesque motifs. The most famous Mughal building to feature parchin kari is the Taj Mahal, built between 1632 and 1653 by Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The parchi kari of the Taj Mahal employs the same angular and curvilinear lines as the design of this tabletop, and is embellished with similar three- and five-petaled flowers, buds, and leaves. The base of this table was constructed specifically for these precious inlaid panels in the manner of Richard Bridgens, the 19th-century English architect and designer, who furnished residences such as Abbotsford House, home of Sir Walter Scott.

This striking tabletop is a section of a septarian nodule, a type of concretion created when pores in a mass of sedimentary rock (usually fossils dating from the Cretaceous period, 50-70 million years ago) are filled in with jelly-like mineral deposits before hardening in a spherical form. The concretions are often reddish or golden in color, and are also called "turtle stones" for the radiating design made by their internal cracks. Septarian nodules can be as large as 9 feet across, though this tabletop was made using a smaller example, which was probably found in the region of the Oxford and Kimmeridge Clays along the Wessex Coast of England. The table's masculine and powerful base, with its design derived from early Roman bronze candelabra, is a particularly suitable vehicle to display this superb example of a Cretaceous period specimen.