Games table - Wood, Ormolu - Game “Libertine Salon”

Rare aristocratic nineteenth-century erotic game – Hand-painted copper wheel mounted on a brass base – One-of-a-kind specimen

An extraordinary and unusual private-use play object dating from the second half of the nineteenth century: a refined erotic wheel handcrafted, likely intended for an aristocratic and discreet milieu.

The piece consists of a circular turned-wood base (overall wheel diameter 29 cm), finely worked and embellished with decorative applications in gilded bronze featuring floral and stellar motifs.

At the top is affixed a copper disk, divided into wedges, each of which houses original hand-painted scenes depicting erotic scenes and positions in a nineteenth-century style. The miniatures show a cultivated painterly hand, with iconographic allusions to the European libertine tradition.

The mechanism is simple but effective: a light push gives the wheel a rotating motion that stops at random on one of the illustrated wedges, thus determining the selected “position.” The central spindle and the small upper metal indicator complete the ingenious system.

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