A pietra dura panel, A pietra dura panel, late 17th century, Florentine, possibly by the Grand Ducal workshops, depicting towers in a Tuscan landscape, 17.5cm wide 23cm high Provenance: The Estate of Sir Jack and Lady Diana Baer. Literature: A Massinelli, 'Hardstones (The Gilbert Collection)', pp.41-43, p.47. Similar examples, fitted in a cabinet on stand and a casket respectively, are known in the Gilbert Collection; Anna Maria Massinelli in 'Hardstones', draws comparisons between these and a series in a cabinet formerly at Villa Poggio Imperiale, the documentation for which dates back to 1691. She remarks that this style of decoration is 'typical of the burgeoning late seventeenth-century taste for landscapes'. Condition Report: Later gilt frame with minor wear. Panel - marble with crack to top right and two cracks to marble 'frame', small chips to bottom two corners. The frame 27 x 33cm