Sorrento Ware Marquetry Mirror Frame

• Olive Wood - Olive wood is the wood from the olive tree (Olea europaea). Olive trees are native to the Mediterranean region and have been cultivated for thousands of years for their fruit, oil, and wood. Olive wood is a hardwood with a tight and dense grain, known for its distinctive pattern of light and dark brown streaks, which can create a beautiful and unique look in finished products. It is a popular choice for carving, turning, and furniture making, as well as for decorative and functional items such as kitchen utensils, cutting boards, and religious objects.
• Olivewood - Olivewood is a hard, close-grained wood from southern Europe and has a green-to-yellow colour with interesting black-grey marking. It was used in the mid-17th century for marquetry inlay, because its colour provided contrasting decoration to walnut, which is a darkish brown with black veining. Olivewood was also frequently seen as cross-graining on chests of drawers from the mid-17th century onwards.
• Grotesque - Grotesque decoration is any fanciful ornament applied to furniture and decorative arts, and includes distorted faces, mythical animals such as satyrs and sphinxes and less frequently fantastical fruit and flower forms.
  
  The Martin Brothers who set up their pottery at the end of the nineteenth century in Southall, Middlesex derived their fame from their hand made models of grotesque stoneware birds.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• Sorrento ware (Italy) - small wooden items 13
• Tunbridge ware 78