Chess board with delicate mineral salt marquetry. The top of the board is a solid slab of rock salt into which squares of rock salt in different colours have been embedded to make the chequered pattern. The inscription on the table reads ‘Rock salt from Cardona, province of Barcelona.’ The table on which the chessboard sits has an elegant three-footed base, which is decorated with plant motifs and human figures. Its maker was Giovanni Battista Pietrasanta, the Florentine sculptor who also made the chess board.