Pietra Dura (“hard stone” in Italian) is the art of inlaying handcut sections of semi-precious stones into a substratum of stone already prepared, cut and worked, to receive the inlaid pieces, the end result being a highly polished picture, usually floral. It evolved into an art form in Florence Italy in the late 1500s, in which Tuscan city the above piece was created in the late 1800s/early 1900s.
This art is very time-consuming; evidently, for stability, each piece is grooved on the underside so that they will slot together as pieces in a jig-saw puzzle.
The above Pietra Dura, in a Silver frame created for it in England over 100 years ago, was purchased from an antiques dealer in Bath Somerset, without the banded Agate bead drop and without the Silver chain, just the piece itself with the three little rings. Difficult to say what might originally have hung from the pendant; it is possible that it never sold, rather sat in a drawer in a back room of some English jeweller’s shop until the business closed, the contents sold or auctioned.
The banded Agate has been added in Sydney, as also the handmade Silver chain.