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.

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 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 Top And Frieze Section Probably Florentine. Circa 1720. The Base English. Circa 1820. This extraordinary table must rank as one of the most exuberant and flamboyant expressions of the late Regency taste and was almost certainly conceived and made in England in the early years of the 19th century as a vehicle for the display of its superb 18th-century Florentine pietre dure tabletop. The subject matter and character of the present top appear to have no precedent in the study of marble inlay in Italy. The composition of the top closely resembles an engraving by the Flemish-born artist Giovanni Stradano (1523-1605). The table base, which is composed of two entwined dolphins, forms part of a small group of early 19th-century tables with similar bases conceived in an antiquarian taste inspired by the English Palladian movement of the first half of the 18th century, and in particular by the furniture designs of William Kent.

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 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.