Coffee table with hardstone top bearing the arms of the Prince of Liechtenstein

19th century
Marble, hard stones (agate, jasper, lapis lazuli, malachite, onyx...), mother-of-pearl inlays
122 x 95 cm

In the center of this table's large top is the coat-of-arms of Prince Karl Eusebius von Liechtenstein (1611-1684). This heraldic composition, with its naturalistic decoration of flowers and birds punctuated by landscape cartouches, is characteristic of the pietra dura creations of the Florentine Granducal workshops, of which it is a late interpretation.
Karl Eusebius succeeded his father Karl I as governor of the duchies of Upper and Lower Silesia from 1639 to 1641. His reign breathed new life into the Principality.
Despite the devastating effects of the Thirty Years' War and the need to restore and consolidate the land, he pursued a policy of unprecedented acquisitions of paintings, bronzes, weapons and decorative art that laid the foundations for Liechtenstein's state collections.