Christie's in London is offering more than 100 Italian pietra dura works from the Baron family in an online sale that runs from October 14 to 28, with the pieces on view at the house's London galleries from October 23 to 28. Pietra dura is the technique of cutting hard stones into shaped pieces and setting them into marble or another stone ground, producing pictures and patterns in the natural colours of the material itself.

The appeal of the medium, as Christie's own guide explains, lies in its brilliance and durability: examples made centuries ago survive with their colours intact, and the technique has enjoyed repeated revivals of interest in every century. Table tops combining lapis lazuli, malachite and marble, and plaques decorated with birds and flowers, sit comfortably in both historic and contemporary rooms, which helps explain why the field draws specialist collectors, academics, interior designers and younger buyers alike.

The Baron group is presented as a single-family collection, a format that lets buyers trace one household's taste across many variations of the craft rather than picking through isolated lots. No individual estimates were highlighted in the material reviewed for this report, and the story here is the breadth of the offering: more than a hundred works spanning the decorative range of Italian stone inlay, from furniture elements to small objects for display.

The sale is being held entirely online, with bidding open until October 28. For a technique that has outlasted several cycles of fashion, a dedicated family sale of this size is a useful measure of how far current demand extends beyond the established names of painting and sculpture.