Pietra Dura......

Congrats to BikerBear for being the first to guess my mystery image yesterday,  It is indeed an ornamental bird, although not Porcelain (Yana1), and it is a semi precious stone (Paola) as most of the inlay is marble.


This is a piece of Pietra dura (15 x 10 cm, about the size of a small old fashioned tile).  Pietra Dura is  a term for the inlay technique of using cut and fitted highly polished coloured stones and marble to create an image.... (very different to mosaic).


The stonework is glued in stone by stone.  This was bought in an antique market as a gift.  The colours are gorgeous; greens, yellows, blue, grey, copper, browns and cream.


Thank you to all for the fun.... especially as this was my first mystery challenge.....