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Rectangular marble table top inlaid with marble specimens, 18th century
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Rectangular marble table top inlaid with marble specimens, 18th century
Inlaid marble
Height: 4.8cm
Width: 111cm
Depth: 64 cm
Width: 111cm
Depth: 64 cm
Museum number: M301.A
On display: Basement Ante-Room
Curatorial note
English or Italian, unknown maker, eighteenth century, marble, with boldly moulded edges containing a grid of 120 square marble samples. This table top is shown on the table M301 in Soane’s 1835 Description, plate XIX and the accompanying text by Soane records 'The Table in the middle of the room, containing various specimens of Marble and Granite, was presented to me by a much-esteemed friend’. It is also described in the 1837 inventory as: ‘inlaid with various specimens of marble’.
There is no record of its acquisition and it is therefore not known whether it was acquired with a particular table or bought separately. It was for many years displayed on one of a pair of Kentian side tables (H22) but was several inches larger than its supporting frame and clearly did not belong to it. It is moulded on all four sides, suggesting it came originally from a centre table such as this one.
There is no record of its acquisition and it is therefore not known whether it was acquired with a particular table or bought separately. It was for many years displayed on one of a pair of Kentian side tables (H22) but was several inches larger than its supporting frame and clearly did not belong to it. It is moulded on all four sides, suggesting it came originally from a centre table such as this one.
Literature
J. Soane Description of the Residence of John Soane, Architect, London,1835, p. 31
P. Thornton ‘Soane’s Kent Tables’ Furniture History XXIX 1993, pp. 59-63
P. Thornton ‘Soane’s Kent Tables’ Furniture History XXIX 1993, pp. 59-63
Associated items
M301, table
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