THE MARBLE
The name Incarnat Turquin derives from two French color terms, aptly evoking the distinctive appearance of this rare red marble from the Languedoc region. Incarnat, meaning “flesh-colored” or crimson, refers to the marble’s dominant reddish tones, while Turquin, a reference to the celebrated Bleu Turquin, denotes the white and bluish-grey veining that traverses its surface. Renowned for this striking chromatic interplay, Incarnat Turquin was employed from the late seventeenth century in chimneypieces, console tables, and architectural ornamentation. Surviving examples in the royal collections at Versailles and Marly attest to its favor under Louis XIV and Louis XV. Because of its shared regional origin and similar crimson ground, Incarnat Turquin is frequently conflated with Rouge Languedoc, another red marble highly prized by the French court.

THE PROVENANCE
This stunning marble dining table was formerly in the collection of Edulji Framroze Dinshaw (1916-1970) and his sister Bachoo Dinshaw (Countess Bachoobai Woronzow-Dashkow, 1914-2003). The Dinshaws belonged to a prominent Parsi family from Mumbai and settled in New York shortly before World War II. They bought a townhouse at 1081 Fifth Avenue, which Edulji filled with a well-appointed collection of remarkable museum quality furniture, porcelain, and decorative objects of significant historical importance.

His notable acquisitions included Marie-Antoinette’s writing desk, inlaid with mother-of-pearl marquetry and made by Jean-Henri Riesener for the queen’s boudoir at the Château de Fontainebleau. The desk passed from the collection of Sir Alfred Rothschild to a Mrs. Drury, who likely sold it to Partridge, from whom it was acquired by the Duveen Brothers and subsequently sold to Edulji F. Dinshaw. This important example of French royal furniture was later returned to Fontainebleau in the mid-1950s, representing one of the rare instances of an artwork repatriated to France after having been imported to the United States (VMB 14368) (see: C. Vignon, Duveen Brothers and the Market for Decorative Arts, 1880-1940, New York, 2019, p. 176). A further astonishing Dinshaw acquisition was an Italian giltwood side table formerly in the collection of the 12th Duke of Hamilton at Hamilton Palace, Lanarkshire (later sold from The Collection of Pierre Durand, Christie’s, New York, 27 Jan 2022, lot 61). The Dinshaws sold their townhouse in the 1950s and seemingly dispersed of its contents around that time. Unfortunately, the townhouse was razed around 1960 to make way for 1080 Fifth Avenue, which stands in its place today.

The dining table subsequently entered the personal collection of Leon Dalva Sr. and his wife, Jean Dalva, of the renowned New York firm Dalva Brothers. Founded by Leon in 1933, Dalva Brothers quickly established itself among the leading dealers of French furniture and decorative arts of the 17th to 19th centuries, noted for its scholarship and for placing works of the highest quality in institutions such as the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Louvre. Like many great dealers, the Dalvas reserved certain works for their own collection. As Madame Dalva once remarked, “We are collectors for collectors, but first we collect for ourselves,” and the present table was among those chosen to furnish their apartment at 1067 Fifth Avenue, where, like the Dinshaws before them, it was always set ‘comme il faut,’ bare of linen, to reveal the full beauty of its marble surface.