A MALTESE PIETRA DURA ARMORIAL DESK WEIGHT BY JOSEPH DARMANIN, DATED '1861' a golden lion passant facing sinister above the motto 'Fare Fac', on a black background, set into white marble, inscribed 'Darmanin Fecit / 1861' verso 11 x 15cm Catalogue Note The crest and motto 'Fare Fac', translating as 'Speak, Do', could be for a branch of the Fairfax family. Malta had a number of marble workshops from the 17th century on, initially founded by Italian craftsmen. The island has close historical links with Sicily and the Southern Italian peninsula only fifty miles away. The importation of the mosaic marble technique into Malta was owing to the patronage of the Knight Hospitallers of St John, based there from 1530 until 1798, who commissioned elaborate marble tombstones for themselves. Under British rule from 1800, the workshops began making marble items in the Italian style for the influx of wealthy British tourists, who had for many years previously shown an interest in buying marble slabs in Italy as souvenirs of the Grand Tour.