Italian Pietra Dura Specimen Marble Centre Table Francesco Sibilio

An Italian Pietra Dura Specimen Marble Centre Table, the top firmly attributed to Francesco Sibilio. This magnificent circular table incorporates some of the rarest stones known to man.
Italy, Rome, circa 1835

Height : 84.5 cms (33.25 ins)
Diameter : 89.5 cms (35.25 ins)

This magnificent Pietra Dura Specimen Marble Centre Table incorporates some of the rarest stones known to man. The truly incredible specimens highlight the richest, deepest, and most vivid colours of the most coveted specimen marbles. This Italian Grand Tour Pietra Dura Centre Table is amongst the finest of its type. The stones include four types of the most stunningly beautiful and incredibly rare Sicilian Jasper, Imperial Egyptian Porphyry, Greek Porphyry, Granito Verdi Della Sedia Di San Lorenzo, Agata del San Gottardo, Pietra Alberese, Rosso Antico, Rosso Levanto, & Belgium Nero. This masterpiece is raised on an exceptional giltwood table base, the baluster stem with acanthus leaves enriched with flowering acanthus tendrils, the flared and fluted circular collar on three crouching Lions legs united by acanthus leaves, the carving is truly fabulous as is the gilding, after a design by Percier and Fontaine.

This superb Pietra Dura Specimen Marble Centre Table is firmly attributed to Francesco Sibilio, who was a preeminent Roman marble craftsman and merchant, active during the papacy of Pius VII. Sibilio’s collection of semi-precious stones, hard stones, rare granites and marbles, was renowned throughout Rome. He was considered a master in this field. Faustino Corsi, in an important treatise on ancient Roman marble, cites Sibilio’s name many times. A. Gonzalez-Palacios, as well as eminent 19th Century scholars, such as Francesco Belli, have named some particularly unusual marbles after him, as it is known that he owned large pieces of them. Still today, definitions such as ‘Sibilio’s Mischio Granit’, ‘Sibilio’s Red Lumachella or Madreporite’, are used. Corsi also records certain pieces after the antique executed by Sibilio ( Delle Pietre Antiche, Rome 1845 ). The stones included in this masterpiece are amongst the finest you will ever see.