Resumen de Destino di un capolavoro: un tavolo ottagonale in pietre dure
On 18 July 1797 Adriano Benotti, a Florentine nobleman, wrote to Grand Duke Ferdinand III proposing the sale of a pietra dura tabletop by the author of another table in the Florentine collection. Luigi Siries, Director of the Real Galleria dei Lavori, whose opinion was sought, answered on 10 August of the same year stating that the octagonal table offered to the Grand Duke had been made towards the end of the Medicean dynasty by craftsmen of the Galleria working on their own account and even using precious stones which actually belonged to the sovereign. Siries therefore believed that the octagonal table was of no interest to the Grand Duke and that its owner should have been allowed to sell it abroad. Since the tabletop discussed here is the only octagonal one of the late Medicean period, it must be the one that belonged to Benotti, which would explain why it appears not to have been recorded in the official documents of the Galleria dei Lavori.
