The Decorative Art of Pietra Dura

During the 17th and 18th century the Grand Tour of Europe was principally undertaken by upper-class young men of means, primarily associated with the British nobility and wealthy landed gentry. The value of the Grand Tour, it was believed, lay in the exposure to both the cultural legacy of classical antiquity and the Renaissance. It was normally taken in the company of a Cicerone, a knowledgeable guide or tutor. During the tour many works of art would be collected and sent back to the young men's stately 'piles' and country houses. One particular object of desire was invariably Pietra Dura. Often purchased to be inserted into cabinet doors or table tops on their return, or they commissioned the making of a piece of furniture which included inlays of Pietra Dura. 
Pietra Dura is a decorative art and a term used for the inlaying of coloured marble or semi precious stones to create images or patterns.
The finest example is the Badminton Cabinet auctioned in London eight years ago, and sold for £19,045,250 million pounds the most expensive piece of furniture ever sold.
The cabinet is huge, it stands 12.5 feet high (the height of two tall men) and 7.5 feet wide.

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Henry Somerset, the third duke of Beaufort, was only 19 in 1726, when he passed through Florence on his grand tour of Europe. He stayed a week and ordered the piece, making a rare private commission at the Medici workshop. The cabinet required about six years and 30 expert craftspeople to make it. Documents record that the young duke paid £500, plus £94 in duty. A substantial sum of money in those days.

All of the following pieces are examples of Florentine Pietra Dura which I photographed in The Argory, Northern Ireland. 

This table top has rather lovely branches of olives intertwined with ribbon around its edge.

It was not unusual to have the families coat of arms incorporated into a table top or on one of the panels in a cabinet.
The following Pietra Dura pieces were photographed at Stourhead House, Wiltshire.

This is called the Pope's cabinet, because it is believed to have belonged to Pope Sixtus V. The stand for the cabinet was made for Richard Hoare when he returned home from his Grand Tour with the Pope's cabinet.

The carved gilded head of the pope reflecting that it had once belonged to him.

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The village of Ashford in the Water is considered to be one of the most attractive villages in the Peak District National Park, Derbyshire. However its fame rests on more than its idyllic setting, as it will be forever associated with a remarkable rock, a jet black bituminous limestone known as the Ashford Black Marble which used to be found in the hills surrounding the village. During the early years of the 19th century, one William Adam, having it is presumed seen examples of Florentine Pietra Dura in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire at nearby Chatsworth House, realised that the Black Marble could be employed as a suitable base material for inlay work. The work subsequently produced in Derbyshire  was considered equal to the finest produced in Florence, and examples were shown at the Great Exhibition in 1851.
The black marble eventually fitted in ideally with the sombre mourning period and mood of Queen Victoria's reign following the death of her beloved Albert in 1861.

Having my roots in Derbyshire, I own a piece of Derbyshire Black Marble Pietra Dura dating back to around 1850. An elegant black ebony box with an inlaid Ashford Black Marble Pietra Dura lid showing two white lilies.