A Specimen Marble, Porphyry And Semi-precious Stones Table-top On Parcel-gilt Bronze Base

A specimen marble, porphyry and semi-precious stones table-top on parcel-gilt bronze base.
Italy.
Early 19th century for the top, the base of later date.
71 x 87 x 87 cm (28 x 34,25 x 34,25 in).

This gueridon is composed of a significant top of samples of marbles from Italy, France, Anatolia, and Africa, some bearing the mark of a fossil, breccias from numerous massifs, granites and diorites, including a rare orbicular diorite, porphyries from Greece, Trento and Egypt, alabasters, lumachelles, jaspers, malachites, lapis and chalcedonies, bordered by a gallery of hexagonal prisms in malachite, rosso, and giallo as well as a beige marble, linked together by a cord of lapis lazuli, all resting on an important base entirely in patinated and gilt bronze, with bun feet, the stretcher adorned with a rosette in patinated bronze and a pine cone in gilt bronze.

The top evokes Roman productions of the first third of the 19th century. The base is of later date.