Large Vintage Florentine Gilt Wood Serving Tray – Ornate Handles Crimson Salver

One must acknowledge that when the mid-century Florentine workshops scaled up their production to a truly grand canvas, they completely abandoned all restraint. This substantial wooden serving tray is a remarkably special variant of standard Italian tourist ware, eschewing the common basic rectangles for an extraordinarily elaborate, multi-scalloped cartouche silhouette.

The piece features a pair of beautifully integrated, heavily pierced rococo handles that flow seamlessly from the deeply contoured rim. The basin is dressed in a vibrant, highly dramatic crimson lacquer, which serves as a striking frame for the hand-stamped, raised gilt scrollwork panels. It is an exceptionally theatrical, large-scale object, possessing an expansive table presence that makes it far less of a simple serving tool and more of a definitive mid-century design statement.

Condition:
Presented in wonderfully honest, thoroughly broken-in vintage condition. The tray exhibits an outstanding, authentic patina from decades of real domestic display, including light localized flaking to the red lacquer finish, minor surface rubbing exposing the underlying gesso along the high points of the scalloped rim, and a fine network of historic craquelure across the gold leaf. These signs of actual usage save you the tedious worry of its very first mark and establish its genuine 1960s Tuscan pedigree.

Dimensions:
• Length (Handle to Handle): 52 cm (approx. 20.5 inches)
• Width: 32 cm (approx. 12.5 inches)
• Height (to top of handle): 4 cm