The labrum, or basin, was used as a water vessel in ancient Roman bath complexes and gardens. With the construction of aqueducts, water could be carried for miles and its use was no longer restricted to basic necessities, but could now be enjoyed for recreation and decorative purposes. It is apparent from ancient marble specimens and wall frescoes that ornamental fountains were popular additions to the garden landscapes of antiquity.

The present botanical table takes the form of an ancient basin on stand. A fountain related to the present table, constructed from a basin and stand, is in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (figure 1). Dating from the 1st century AD, this white marble example also has a shaped square top with tapering concave sides above a circular basin raised on a fluted circular stem. Similar to the present table, there is a rosette at the center of the basin, however, it is pierced in the ancient example, allowing water into the bowl. A second ancient example can be found in the Vatican museum collections. Its circular bowl is gadrooned like the present table, and it, too, has a fluted circular splayed stem that sits on a square plinth. The designs of such labra were copied and disseminated in works such as Anne-Claude-Phillipe Caylus’ Recueil d’antiquités égyptiennes, étrusques, grecques, romaines et gauloises (1752-67) (figure 2). Figure 1

Figure 2 The present table is constructed much in the manner of the work of the celebrated designer and architect Karl Friederich Schinkel (1781-1841). The formal restraint of the table, free from extraneous decoration and marked by the smooth elegance of its form and the quality of its detailing, is characteristic of Schinkel’s neo-classical furniture designs. The table is closely related to an engraving of an antique marble urn from Tivoli published in Vorbilder für Fabrikanten und Handwerker, for which Schinkel provided the plates from 1821 (figure 3). Like the present table, that piece has a square top, molded to the inside edge and to the external sides, supported on a circular gadrooned support, itself raised on a spreading circular molded stem and stood on a square plinth. Although the Tivoli urn features the motif of decorative swans to each corner of the top, the forms of the table and the engraving are otherwise so closely related that it seems probable that the urn provided the inspiration for the present piece. Figure 3 Schinkel was profoundly engaged with relating his architecture to nature and the surrounding landscape, and the present table can be seen in the context of the garden rooms he incorporated into his buildings to achieve this conjunction. These rooms served to relate interiors to the gardens beyond and often ran directly into pergolas and garden terraces. The multifunctional table possesses capabilities of both growing and displaying plants by means of a removable tabletop and a series of removable trays, which fit ingeniously into the curving sides of the table’s basin. When all the trays are removed, a central button is revealed inside the basin, which, when pressed, releases a drawer concealed in the table’s base, where the trays can be stored when not in use. Schinkel realized this philosophy in a series of neo-classical villas built for the Prussian royal family in the middle of the 1820s. At Schloss Glienicke, built for Prince Karl, son of Friedrich Wilhem III from 1824, Schinkel transformed a modest country house into an Italianate villa and constructed a casino flanked with pergolas and vine-clad loggias, into which opened directly the central saloon with a large mirrored wall to reflect the garden. This combination of interior and landscape was repeated in the pavilion Schinkel constructed in the grounds of Schloss Charlottenburg in 1824. In that villa a continuous external balcony connected the rooms of the first floor and an axially placed garden room commanded a view along the whole of the long garden terrace towards the Schloss itself.

In mid-16th century Renaissance Italy, the production of panels and tabletops using inlays of semiprecious stone began, with materials and geometric designs deriving from classical Roman motifs.

However, the design of this particular tabletop, which is probably Roman circa 1680, represents a complete departure from this tradition in that it is a pure interpretation in mosaic of ancient marble, possibly Egyptian alabaster or giallo antico. We know of no other comparable example and, as such, believe this top to be probably unique. Egyptian alabaster was one of the stones most highly prized by the ancient Romans, and was largely employed in the making of canopic jars, statues, ritual objects and sarcophagi. “Alabaster” of ancient civilizations describes calcium carbonate (sometimes referred to as calcite-alabaster, travertine, or limestone onyx). The layers of Egyptian alabaster, formed by deposits in limestone caverns or calcareous springs, create a banded appearance in the stone. It occurs in three forms: an opaque, milky appearance; “fibrous, coloured in shades of pale brown or yellowish to orangish-brown with faint to marked layering;”1 and a combination of the two, which is possibly figured in the present tabletop.

The ebonized base, made in the 19th century, is reminiscent of mid-17th century designs for drawer-leaf tables found in both the Netherlands and Sweden.

"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).

In our upcoming gallery exhibition, “ON TOPS,” we display a number of purpose-made pieces, where table bases of later construction were made specifically to suit their special tops. One such center table to be exhibited comprises a specially constructed base (circa 1840) designed in the manner of English architect Richard Bridgens, and a top made from two 17th-century parchin kari panels. Parchin Kari is the Mughal word for pietre dure (or “hardstones”). The most famous building to feature this technique is the Taj Mahal, the finest example of Mughal architecture

Scagliola originated in Bavaria, and was kept secret until the mid-17th century. Around 1600 Blasius Fistulator and his son Wilhelm decorated the Reich Kapelle for Maximillian I: Wilhelm did a series of scagliola scenes from the life of Mary, including four landscapes, based on engravings by Albrecht Dürer. This tabletop's Rhineland hunting scene would have come from a contemporary painting or engraving by a Dutch or Flemish master such as Aelbert Cuyp, who traveled along the Rhine in the early 1650s. Maximillian I’s grandson, Max Emmanuel, moved some of Fistulator’s scagliola panels, reinstalling them circa 1725 in the Kammerkapelle. Johann Baptiste Zimmermann decorated the ceiling with stucco motifs that reappear in the frieze of this table's base, which appears to date from around 1725. It is possible that the top existed first as a panel on a wall: possibly one of the ones moved in 1725 by Max Emmanuel.

The Table English. Circa 1785. The Top Probably Rome. Circa 1600. This magnificent 16th-century Roman pietre dure top stands on an important neoclassical giltwood base, almost certain to have been made to a design by Thomas Leverton for the Drawing Room at Woodhall Park, the splendid mansion built in the 1780s for Sir Thomas Rumbold. The tabletop can be compared to a select group of similar pietre dure pieces that date from 1550 to 1620, which includes the Farnese Table, now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, the famed Richelieu table in the Galerie d’Apollon in the Louvre, an octagonal table in the Palazzo Quirinale in Rome, and a rectangular top from Fonthill Abbey. The present top shares a number of defining features with the aforementioned pieces that would suggest Roman manufacture during the second half of the 16th century. The technical virtuosity of the craftsmanship and the complexity of the design are enhanced by the great variety of stones employed.

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.

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.

In 1819, John Howard Galton, son of Samuel Galton Jr. and Lucy Barlcay of Dudson House, Birmingham, was married to Isabella Strutt, daughter of Joseph Strutt, Mayor of Derby and Isabel Douglas. This table was made in honor of the marriage, with both families' crests and coats-of-arms displayed on its top using inlaid marble and hardstone decoration. The large shield shows the Galton coat-of-arms, with a small shield inside it showing the coats-of-arms of the Strutt and Douglas families. Above are the crests of the Galtons and the Strutts. The top's exquisite quality suggests it was made in one of the leading Italian workshops, where English noblemen often commissioned lapidary items. Its base has a pleasing Grecian simplicity, and traces of an unusual dark green coating indicating that it originally resembled bronze. The Galtons' home was Hadzor Hall, former home of Katherine of Aragon. The table remained there until 1929, when John Howard's grandson, the last of the Galton line, died.

This table derives from the Quattrocentro tradition of geometric inlay found in numerous Florentine tombs and chapels (for example, the Chapel of the Medici Riccardi, designed by Michelozzo circa 1459, has a floor that employs similar geometric patterns). The bold system of inlaid lozenges and circles give the top a striking modernity, which is further enhanced by the subtle color palette chosen by the designer. The table's large central lozenge is made of brown alabaster, which was invariably used as the central feature of pietre dure tops made in Rome and Florence during the 16th and 17th centuries.

This table was designed circa 1963 by English sculptor Henry Moore (1898-1986), for the living room of his home in Forte dei Marmi, Italy. It was made entirely out of travertine, one of Moore's favorite stones, which is a porous, yet durable, sedimentary rock that is used primarily in buildings, and which Moore used for sculptures including one commissioned by UNESCO, Paris. The stone was quarried near Rome, and the table was made by the Henraux workshop in Querceta, near Forte dei Marmi. The entire design and construction process of the present table was carried out during "one long summer holiday period", and it remained in the family's Italian vacation home until Henry Moore's death, after which it was inherited by his daughter, Mary Moore Danowski. According to Moore's daughter, apart from two wooden carved benches made in the early 1920s, this table is the only piece of furniture Henry Moore ever created.

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.

Mosaics as an art form emerged in Rome in the 16th century, under the influence of the Pope, and were used primarily in a religious context as a type of "permanent painting," competing with more traditional forms of art. By the 18th century, the advancements in technology and craft, and the increase in patrons' wealth and demand allowed mosaic art to be be rapidly produced and commercialized. Private ateliers sprang up and began to produce mosaic work to supply the Grand Tourists of the 18th and 19th centuries with trophies, including tabletops like the present piece, to be taken back to England. The view of St. Peter's Basilica in the center of this top is strikingly similar to the one on a table in The Gilbert Collection, London. The present table's gilt-brass and ebonized base, which in true Regency fashion adapts classical elements like zoomorphic feet and a triform base, would have been specially constructed for displaying the top.

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.

The present tabletop's inlaid design of colorful birds, flowers and branches with fruit comes from the distinct style of mosaic found in Florence from the 17th century well into the 19th century. While the base has many elements that point to English Regency design, such as the fine brass inlay on a contrasting ebonized ground, the zoomorphic feet, and the outsplaying trestle-ends, there are many constructional features that suggest an Italian origin. It is possible therefore to speculate on the English cabinetmaker Henry Thomas Peters as its author: Peters lived and worked in Genoa in the first part of the 19th century, and supplied furniture for King Carlo Alberto.

This distinctive and highly unusual table houses a remarkable collection of semiprecious hardstones and marbles, each set in a silver frame and, interestingly, inscribed on the reverse with its Latin name, which signifies that the stones constituted a geological collection. Tabletops inlaid with mineral collections brought back from the Grand Tour in Italy were highly desired in fashionable circles during this period, though their compositions lacked the inventiveness and artistry of the present table. The table also bears an inlaid armorial with the mantle and coronet of either a Prince of Russia or a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, very similar to a pair of armorials on a music cabinet from Schwarzenau Castle in Austria. While the table was clearly intended for a European aristocratic household, its sculptural appearance, dark gold lacquer on the mounts, and brass inlay on the legs all indicate that it was made in an English workshop.

This tabletop is inlaid with stone images of Masonic symbols, including in its central section a doorway representing Obedience, a paved floor (Humility), and two columns (Creation and Salvation). The octagonal shape of the tabletop is also symbolic: it is derived from the "square upon square", an important design in Freemasonry. The border of the table is filled with the working tools of a stonemason, which are all given symbolic meaning by Freemasons: the level implies equality; the square represents morality; and the trowel symbolizes unity, "spreading the cement of the Brotherhood" of the society.

The top of this table is composed of a fragment of an ancient Roman floor mosaic, possibly from somewhere like the ancient Roman dwelling called Casa Rural das Ruinas in Milreu, Portugal. The baths at this villa, which was built and expanded between the 1st and 4th centuries AD, still have their brightly-colored tile decorations of marine life, including fish very similar to the one on this tabletop, and the same set of distinctive geometric shapes, which may represent mollusks and jellyfish.

The design of this remarkable table, which is inlaid with the signature MAJORELLE NANCY on the inside of one of its legs, places its maker, Louis Majorelle, in the vanguard of the stylistic developments of the early 1900s. A table of the same form appears in a photograph of Majorelle's workshop, taken sometime between 1903 and 1908, when Majorelle and his contemporaries were mostly still working in the Art Nouveau style. The table's distinctive rectilinear design, with geometric inlay to its legs and the striking parquet pattern to its marble top, would have been extremely progressive for its time, and encapsulated a sense of modernity.

Exquisite Scagliola Tabletop Depicting a Scene from the Hunt We have so far introduced a number of tabletops that use stone as their primary decorative ingredient, whether it be the tesserae of mosaic or pietre dure of marble inlay. An new art form that ensued was Scagliola, where imitation stone is created by combining ground selenite with water, animal glue and natural pigments. The resulting mixture is spread or, once hardened, carved into and engraved with a particular design. Finally, it is heavily polished to give the appearance of marble. The name “scagliola” derives from the Italian word scaglia, meaning “chips,” and though it was taken up with élan in Italy, the technique is thought to have originated in 16th century Bavaria by Blasius Fistulator. He and his son Wilhelm constructed scagliola panels for the famous Reiche Kapelle in Munich for Maximillian I, Duke of Bavaria (1573-1651). Munich scagliola owes much to Flemish painting and it is clear that the hunting scene depicted on the present tabletop is derived from a Dutch or Flemish old master such as Jan Wildens. Wildens was a Flemish Baroque painter active in Antwerp and Italy, famous for his gentle landscapes (figured below). Landscapes of the Rhineland and its environs share many of the same characteristics: a tree-lined path extending from the foreground beside a river and a distant town in the background. The scenes are often populated by farmers, shepherds, or hunting parties. In the present tabletop, a hunt is taking place in a valley to the left, while two gentlemen on horseback are attended by two servants, one with hounds and the other holding the cadge on which rest the birds used in falconry. There is also an “informality and anecdotal atmosphere” often found in Netherlandish hunting portraits. "Landscape with Hunters" by Jan Wildens, 1649. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; http://bilddatenbank.khm.at/viewArtefact?id=2125. "Landscape with Hunters and Dogs" by Jan Wildens. Adler, Wolfgang. Jan Wildens. Fridingen: Graf Klenau Verlag, 1980. 179.