Antique Italian Micro Mosaic Grand Tour Paperweight

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19th Century Italian micro mosaic grand tour paperweight - The Doves of Pliny. Rome - Circa 1870.

Cartouche shaped black … Read more 19th Century Italian micro mosaic grand tour paperweight - The Doves of Pliny. Rome - Circa 1870.

Cartouche shaped black slate ground, inset with a micro-mosaic depicting Pliny's Doves.

There appears to be a historic repair, a hairline is running through the top at a diagonal. On close inspection, a small number of the micro mosaic pieces appear to have been repaired with paint. Please refer to the photographs. The slate has some nibbles to the edges as expected with age.

The mosaic has wonderful colours and still remains a beautiful, useable decorative item.

Doves of Pliny image comes from a Roman floor mosaic discovered in 1737 at Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli, which in turn is believed to be a copy of a lost ancient Greek mosaic at Pergamon. The original is described by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History, completed in 77AD. See less