Romano Bianchi Italy Alabaster Ashtray

This beautiful and very large ashtray in a brutalist style, smooth on the horizontal faces and rough with tool marks around the edge, is made of italian alabaster as evidenced by the label still present underneath. The alabaster used, hand-carved, has a nice veining and beautiful and multiple soft colors: beige, caramel brown, yellow, green, gray blue. I was not able to render the colors exactly in the photos. The bluish gray inclusions appear white in the photos, hence a dominant color that appears more pink than it actually is. It would be an ashtray made by the artisan company romano bianchi which has existed since the 1950s. It probably dates from the 1960s or 1970s, the ashtrays made of alabaster extracted from the family quarry in volterra were then their flagship product. It is in beautiful condition, still very smooth, no cracks or chips but obviously it has some signs of its age: some small abrasions (some are probably original) on the edges. This ashtray measures approximately 20 cm by 17 cm for a thickness of 6 cm, and it weighs approximately 2.6 kg.