Pietre Dure

Precious and semi-precious stones with bright and variegated colours were polished to acquire a dazzling splendour and inlaid in the pictorial "mosaic" surfaces of prestigious furniture from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Beginning in Rome and then Florence, there was a growing taste for pietre dure, later disseminated throughout Europe. This text illustrates the range of its uses in furniture and decoration and discuses the major centres of its production. The types, sources and characteristics of pietre dure complete this exhaustive reference work.