Price Guide to Antiques & Collectables
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Antique Venetian / Italian grotto furniture

A grotto is a small picturesque cave on the sea shore often with the threat of flood at high tide. But from the early 1500s wealthy Europeans constructed grottos in their gardens as a cool place to retreat to from the summer sun. Garden grottos continued to be popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. To furnish the grottos, fantasy furniture, called grotto furniture, was created. Shells, coral, dolphins and seahorses were often sculpted into chairs, settees and tables for use in the grotto.

2 items found.
Venetian grotto giltwood armchair, of open escalope form with…
Giltwood Venetian Armchair with Dolphin Arms

Venetian grotto giltwood armchair, of open escalope form with radiating flutes over scrolling dolphin form arms, raised on tapering legs carved as water reed girded shells, height 35.83 in. Provenance: Private Collection, Sydney

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A silver gilt Venetian fantasy grotto table, 82 cm high, 48 cm…
Silver gilt Venetian fantasy grotto table

A silver gilt Venetian fantasy grotto table, 32.28 in. high, 18.90 in. diameter. Provenance: Christie's Melbourne, 17 & 18 September 2002, Lot 1

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