FLORENCE, OPICIFIO DELLE PIETRE DURE, CIRCA 1810

The decoration on the cover and base with its Etruscan vases in the antique manner, was popularised in the first two decades of the 19th Century by Carlo Carlieri (d.1816), and it is probable that this box dates from Carlieri's tenure at the Grand Ducal workshop, see A.M. Giusti, 'Pietre Dure and the Art of Florentine Inlay', London, 2006, ill.177, pp. 216-219. Carlieri was the head designer at the workshops who produced numerous watercolour designs of shells, flowers, butterflies and Etruscan vases for ladies accessories, chivalric decorations, sets of buttons and above all snuff-boxes, see A. M. Giusti, 'Pietre Dure', London 1992, p.116 and 118. The Opificio was established in 1588 by Ferdinando I de'Medici to provide elaborate, inlaid precious and semi-precious stoneworks. The artisans performed the exceptionally skilled and delicate task of inlaying thin veneers of semi-precious stones, especially selected for their colour, opacity, brilliance and grain, to create elaborate decorative and pictorial effects. The workshops were originally located in the Casino Mediceo, then in the Uffizi and were finally moved to their present location in Via Alfani in 1796.