An Inlaid and Veneered Wood Neoclassic Card Table

An inlaid and veneered wood Neoclassic games table with maple, palissander, walnut, and mahogany woods on a bois de rose veneered base. This card table has the typical structure of an 18th century neoclassic, north Italian game table from the same period as the Louis XVI style in France. The top, which lifts and rotates on the base, is decorated with roman ruins, an obelisk and figures.

On the upper part of the arch scene is a plaque where Renoldi’s signature is visible. The inlaid woods are maple, palissander, walnut, mahogany and various others, outlined with a fascia of shell motifs and stylized vines on a bois de rose veneered base. The apron is inlaid with sphinxes and vegetal motifs on all sides, with volute; vegetal pendants decorate the tapered legs. The scene of Piranesi inspiration is a previously unpublished example of this Lombard intarsia master’s ôeuvre. A pair of little pictures formerly with the Kugel gallery in Paris initialed G.R. and dated 1798 are signed on the back “opera di Gaetano Renoldi ebanista Milanese abitante in Genova Strada Novissima.”