Of ebony, silver inlay, mounted with Tulyakov jasper, lapis lazuli, agate, amber, striated green glass and with silver inlay. Each in the form of a tapering obelisk, panelled to the front and inlaid with shaped hardstones, raised on four ball feet above a rectangular plinth panelled to the front and set with shaped stones above a molded edge set on a plain frieze with inlaid stone to the front, above a plain plinth base.

Italian. Nineteenth Century. Identical terms to the present example exist in the magnificent Borghese Villa in Rome, occupying prominent positions in both the main hall and the fourth room of the gallery. Although executed in different marble to the current piece the extremely fine bronze elements appear to be from the same cast as those on the present term. The Castle of Rosenholm in Jutland was built for Vice Chancellor Joergen Rosenkrantz and was completed in 1570. It remains in the private ownership of the Rosenkrantz family and is acknowledged as one of the most beautiful and best preserved renaissance castles in Europe.

This table derives from the Quattrocentro tradition of geometric inlay found in numerous Florentine tombs and chapels (for example, the Chapel of the Medici Riccardi, designed by Michelozzo circa 1459, has a floor that employs similar geometric patterns). The bold system of inlaid lozenges and circles give the top a striking modernity, which is further enhanced by the subtle color palette chosen by the designer. The table's large central lozenge is made of brown alabaster, which was invariably used as the central feature of pietre dure tops made in Rome and Florence during the 16th and 17th centuries.

This table was designed circa 1963 by English sculptor Henry Moore (1898-1986), for the living room of his home in Forte dei Marmi, Italy. It was made entirely out of travertine, one of Moore's favorite stones, which is a porous, yet durable, sedimentary rock that is used primarily in buildings, and which Moore used for sculptures including one commissioned by UNESCO, Paris. The stone was quarried near Rome, and the table was made by the Henraux workshop in Querceta, near Forte dei Marmi. The entire design and construction process of the present table was carried out during "one long summer holiday period", and it remained in the family's Italian vacation home until Henry Moore's death, after which it was inherited by his daughter, Mary Moore Danowski. According to Moore's daughter, apart from two wooden carved benches made in the early 1920s, this table is the only piece of furniture Henry Moore ever created.

Mosaics as an art form emerged in Rome in the 16th century, under the influence of the Pope, and were used primarily in a religious context as a type of "permanent painting," competing with more traditional forms of art. By the 18th century, the advancements in technology and craft, and the increase in patrons' wealth and demand allowed mosaic art to be be rapidly produced and commercialized. Private ateliers sprang up and began to produce mosaic work to supply the Grand Tourists of the 18th and 19th centuries with trophies, including tabletops like the present piece, to be taken back to England. The view of St. Peter's Basilica in the center of this top is strikingly similar to the one on a table in The Gilbert Collection, London. The present table's gilt-brass and ebonized base, which in true Regency fashion adapts classical elements like zoomorphic feet and a triform base, would have been specially constructed for displaying the top.

During the Renaissance, panels and tabletops inlaid with semiprecious stone began to be produced in Italy, with materials and geometric designs derived from classical Roman motifs. The present tabletop, which was probably made in Rome around 1680, represents a complete departure from this tradition, since its design is an imitation in mosaic of ancient marble, possibly Egyptian alabaster or giallo antico. We know of no comparable example, and so believe this top to be probably unique. Egyptian alabaster, which can appear with a combination of opaque milky sections and yellow-orange-brown fibrous layers, was one of the stones most highly prized by ancient Romans, and was used in making many ritual objects. The ebonized base, which was made for the top in the 19th century, is reminiscent of mid-17th century designs for drawer-leaf tables found in the Netherlands and Sweden.

The top of this table is composed of a fragment of an ancient Roman floor mosaic, possibly from somewhere like the ancient Roman dwelling called Casa Rural das Ruinas in Milreu, Portugal. The baths at this villa, which was built and expanded between the 1st and 4th centuries AD, still have their brightly-colored tile decorations of marine life, including fish very similar to the one on this tabletop, and the same set of distinctive geometric shapes, which may represent mollusks and jellyfish.