Indian Pietra Dura Table Top with Cornucopia and Bird Motifs

Two birds on a branch, and enough cut stone around them to keep a workshop busy.

This pietra dura table top with cornucopia and bird motifs comes from Rajasthan, India, and is contemporary work in hardstone mosaic. Table tops like this are made to sit on a base as a dining or hall showpiece; in pietra dura, colored stone is cut so closely that the joints nearly vanish. The ground here is black. A pair of birds sits at the center inside a stepped red and white frame, with ochre chain links around it. White scrolling leaves, blue-striped cornucopias, butterflies and small birds fill the outer field. Fifty inches long, 32 deep and one inch high.

Add a base. It has done enough already.