Object Description
An Impressive ‘Grand Tour’ Specimen Marble Top Centre Table
The base attributed to William Trotter of Edinburgh
Constructed in a finely patinated mahogany, with a Florentine Pietra Dura radially inlaid platform. Rising from an incurved tripartite platform base dressed with a reeded moulding, having carved lion’s paw feet, mounted on castors, supporting a circular turned, beaded, and fluted centre column, carved with stiff leaf foliates: the marble circular top decorated with a central circular boss of lapis lazuli, issuing radially laid segments of specimen marbles, including Malachite, Porphyry, Breccia and Agates, inter alia, enclosed within an outer guard band of Antico Verde.
The base; Scottish, circa 1825
The top; Italian, circa 1815
A similar lapis-centred top, together with some thirty-two identified marbles, is displayed in London’s Natural History Museum.
William Trotter (1772 – 1833)
The most prominent and successful Cabinet Maker in Scotland, his extensive premises were described in Thomas Dibdin’s ‘Tour in the North Countries of England and Scotland’, quoting, in part ‘The locality of this great…warehouse is rather singular. It is on the ground floor, lighted by a skylight, of great length and vistas, filled with Mahogany and Rosewood objects of temptation of all styles, including the modern form’.