Back on January 21 Dreweatt Neate of Donnington Priory sold a splendid Italian micromosaic table by Michaelangelo Barberi for £250,000 (plus 15/10 per cent buyer's premium).
However, that sum was bettered by this pietra dura topped table that was offered by Gorringes of Bexhill-on-Sea on December 7-8. Although catalogued as 17th/18th century, the hardstone panel, measuring 4ft 9in by 2ft 8in (1.39m x 81cm), is one of a series made in Rome c.1620-1650. Its giltwood base was English and likely a modified 18th century neoclassical serving table.
The table had been found by Gorringes' valuers in a house in Tunbridge Wells but was probably acquired between the wars from the collection of the late Colonel Abel Smith of Wood Hall Park, Buxton.
Although the top had a substantial crack that stretched towards the oval jasper 'landscape' panel in the centre, the lot was competed well beyond its £30,000-50,000 estimate selling to a London dealer at £260,000 (plus 15 per cent buyer's premium). The price was a house record for the East Sussex auctioneers who in November 2003 sold a Johnstone & Jeanes radially expanding dining table for £130,000.
