Plate Of Colored Marble Specimens From The Grand Tour, Italy, 19th Century.

Plate of colored marble specimens from the Grand Tour. 
Resting on four feet (possibly added later), the central panel consists of a diamond-patterned inlay featuring numerous varieties of marble and semi-precious stones, including Portor marble, alabaster, Griotte marble, onyx, and others. The whole is surrounded by a border of yellow marble of the Giallo Antico type or Siena marble, laminated onto a thick slab of gray/mauve marble with a molded border.
19th-century Italian work.
Dimensions: 29.5 x 29.5 cm.
(Note: An illusionistic restoration has been made to one of the corners of the backing slab, the one containing the marble samples, which are in perfect condition). 

This type of “specimen marbles” or sample table, is part of the great European tradition of mineralogy cabinets and souvenirs from the Grand Tour, during which wealthy travelers brought back samples of ancient and local marbles assembled into ceremonial tables or small display panels.
The geometric diamond-shaped arrangement creates a relief effect (cubic trompe-l’œil) that was highly prized in the 18th and 19th centuries, reminiscent of the marble floors of Italian Renaissance palaces or the ancient pavements discovered in Pompeii and Herculaneum.