This nineteenth-century workbench, the shape of which had remained the same since the sixteenth century, was used by artisans specialized in cutting stone slabs for Florentine mosaics. The bench has a walnut wood clamp for the insertion of the stone slab, moveable with the help of a brass handle. Beforehand, a paper template – shaped according to the outlines of the section to be cut – was glued onto the stone slab. The operator cut the stone with a chestnut wood bow with an iron wire, repeatedly dabbed with moistened abrasive powder, taken from a small bowl with a ladle. A slow cutting of the stone was thus possible, by swaying rhythmically the wire of the bow upon the stone slab, vertically secured in the clamp. This technique has not changed and is still used by restorers in the Florentine mosaic laboratories of the Opificio.
