Italian Antique Scagliola Circular Centre Table Top

This delicately detailed circular table top is made of scagliola, a popular Material (a variation of plaster) often used in the nineteenth century for its rich array of decorative qualities and applications. The table top has a central pastoral scene depicting a landscape with figures to the foreground and a distant town.

The central scene is bordered with a frieze of floral decorations and mythical creatures. Though made in the time of the Grand Tour, when much of Europe’s aristocracy coveted anything relating to Italy, Rome, and the Classical world, the image also bears faint hints of more varied stylistic influences, as far afield as Japan perhaps, in the treatment of the landscape and figure. A curious, charming, and fascinating antique piece, this work will be of great interest for those with a love of Italian art and antiques of the 19th century.