Antique Italian Walnut Tripod Coffee Table

Elegant round table from northern Italy with an ”orange slice” walnut veneer; the center of the tripod shaft is in a hexagonal solid; the final three supports are shaped and well modeled with simple and rigorous lines. At the center of the table is a delicate and elegant inlay depicting a rose, hand made with soft precious woods, inlaid always are the two peripheral wheels of the plane. The most interesting and compelling feature of this table is the process by which it was created: the ”veneer.” The veneer is a craft technique which was already widespread in the course of the sixteenth century and remained unchanged until the mid nineteenth century before the Industrial Revolution. It consisted of cutting the trunks of the trees of noble wood (walnut, mahogany, burls, feather etc.) in many layers thickness that ranged from 4 to 6 mm with hand saws, which were then applied to furniture for decorative purposes. The finishing of this process was very complex: the layer of wood was treated with natural earth dissolved in water to the desired shade, it anticava with stone, was fixed with shellac applied by brush and finally polishing was performed in 12 steps with a cotton swab shellac, straw oil with pumice powder. Our table comes from Northern Italy and has been working in 1850 with the oldest technique that enhances the colors, and the flaming feathers of the walnut grain.