Hyppolite-Edmé Pretot A pair of gilt bronze mounted and pietra dura decorated ebony and ebonised meuble à hauteur d'appui, Paris, second half 19th century

surmounted by a black marble top, the door decorated with fine pietra dura panels of parrots and fruiting foliate branches, the doors opening to a shelf, stamped PRETOT to tops of carcass and numbered 196

D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Mobilier Français du XIX Siècle, Les Éditions de l’Amateur, Paris, 2000, pp. 531-532

Pietre dure refers to the Florentine mosaic of hard and semi precious stones in a technique practised at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The background was often made of ebony veneers or black stain so that the rich color of the stones would  contrast nicely with a black background.

This pair of cabinets uses a single pietra dura panel instead of a series of smaller ones as typically seen on Louis XIV furniture. Louis XIV had commissioned several examples of pietra dura furniture for the royal collections throughout his reign- both of Gobelins and Florentine manufacture. They were sold off after the rococo came in style under Louis XV and they were instead sent to the natural sciences collection in the Jardin Royal to be studied for their mineralogical qualities. However, when pietre dure came back in style in the 19^th century it was exactly because it was a mix of art and science and thus paralleled the ideas of the Enlightenment. Many of the new pieces produced in the Enlightenment however featured single hardstones or petrified wood, but the 19^th century pietre dure panels were more concerned with the artistic qualities of the Louis XIV pietre dure. Many of the panels of pietre dure used in French furniture beginning at the end of the 18^th century were repurposed 17^th century original panels.

Hyppolite-Edmé Pretot (1812-1855) was born in Paris and was established at 16, rue de l'abbaye in 1836; 11, bis, rue Saint-Germain-des-Prés in 1841; and from 1846 at 3 & 5 rue de Harlay. He exhibited at the Exposition Nationale in 1849 and at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London, where he obtained a second class medal for a collection of stone-encrusted furniture.