218 MAEBLB 



pelago, as Scio, Samos, Lesbos, &c. Translucent white marble, Marmo statwrio of the 

 Italians, is very much like the Parian, only not so opaque. Columns and altars of 

 this marble exist in Venice, and several towns of Lombardy ; but the quarries are 

 quite unknown. Flexible white marble, of which five or six tables are preserved in 

 the house of Prince Borghese, at Rome. The White marble of Luni, on the coast of 

 Tuscany, was preferred by the Greek sculptors to both the Parian and Pentelic. 

 White marble of Carrara, between Spezzia and Lucca, is of a fine white colour, but 

 often traversed by grey veins, so that it is difficult to procure moderately large pieces 

 free from them. It is not so apt to turn yellow as the Parian marble. This quarry 

 was worked by the ancients, having been opened in the time of Julius Caesar. Many 

 antique statues remain of this marble. Its two principal quarries at the present day 

 are those of Pianello and Polvazzo. In the centre of its block very limpid rock 

 crystals are sometimes found, which are called 'Carrara diamonds.' As the finest 

 qualities are becoming excessively rare, it has risen in price to about 3 guineas the 

 cubic foot. The White marble of Mount Hymettus, in Greece, was not of a very pure 

 white, but inclined a little to grey. The statue of Meleager, in the French Museum, 

 is of this marble. 



Black antique marble, the Nero antico of the Italians. This is more intensely black 

 than any of our modern marbles ; it is extremely scarce, occurring only in sculptured 

 pieces. The red antique marble, Egyptum of the ancients, and Rosso antico of the 

 Italians, is a beautiful marble of a deep blood-red colour, interspersed with white veins 

 and with very minute white dots, as if strewed over with grains of sand. There is in 

 the G-rimani Palace at Venice a colossal statue of Marcus Agrippa in rosso antico, 

 which was formerly preserved in the Pantheon at Rome. - Green antique marble, verde 

 antico, is a kind of breccia, whose paste is a mixture of talc and limestone, while the 

 dark green fragments consist of serpentine. Very beautiful specimens of it are 

 preserved at Parma. The best quality has a grass-green paste, with black spots of 

 noble serpentine, but is never mingled with red spots. Bed spotted green antique 

 marble has a dark green ground marked with small red and black spots, with frag- 

 ments of entrochi changed into white marble. It is known only in small tablets. 

 Leek marble ; a rare variety of that colour of which there is a table in the Mint at 

 Paris. Marmo verde paaliocco is of a yellowish-green colour, and is found only in 

 the ruins of ancient Rome. Cervclas marble, of a deep red, with numerous grey and 

 white veins, is said to be found in Africa, and highly esteemed in commerce. Yellow 

 antique marble, giallo antico of the Italians ; colour of the yolk of an egg, either uniform 

 or marked with black or deep yellow rings. It is rare, but may be replaced by Sienna 

 marble. Bed and white antique marbles, found only among the ruins of ancient Rome. 

 Grand antique, a breccia marble, containing shells, consists of large fragments of a 

 black marble, traversed by veins or lines of a shining white. There are four columns 

 of it in the Museum at Paris. Antique Cipolino marble : Cipolin is a name given to 

 all such marbles as have greenish zones produced by green talc ; their fracture is 

 granular and shining, and displays here and there plates of talc. Purple antique 

 breccia marble is very variable in the colour and size of its spots. Antique African 

 breccia has a black ground, variegated with large fragments of a greyish-white, deep 

 red, or purplish wine colour ; and is one of the most beautiful marbles. Hose-coloured 

 antique breccia marble is very scarce, occurring only in small tablets. There are 

 various other kinds of ancient breccia, which it would be tedious to particularise. 



Modern Marbles. 1. British. Black marble is found at Ashford, Matlock, 

 and Bonsaldale in Derbyshire ; and in the south part of Devonshire. The variegated 

 marbles of Devonshire are generally reddish, brownish, and greyish, variously veined 

 with white and yellow, or the colours are often intimately blended ; the marbles from 

 Torbay and Babbacombo display a great variety in the mixture of their colours ; the 

 Plymouth marble is either ash-coloured with black veins, or blackish-grey and white 

 shaded with black veins ; the cliffs near Marychurch exhibit marble quarries not only 

 of great extent, but of superior beauty to any other in Devonshire, being either of a 

 dove-coloured ground with reddish-purple and yellow veins, or of a black ground 

 mottled with purplish globules. Tho green marble of Anglesea is not unlike the 

 verde antico ; its colours being greenish-black, leek-green, and sometimes dull purplish 

 irregularly blended with white. The white part is limestone, the green shades proceed 

 from serpentine and asbestos. There are several fine varieties of marble in Derby- 

 shire ; the mottled-grey in the neighbourhood of Moneyash, the light-grey being 

 rendered extremely beautiful by the number of purple veins which spread upon its 

 polished surface in elegant irregular branches ; but its chief ornament is tie multitude 

 of entrochi with which this limestone marble abounds. Much of the transition and 

 carboniferous limestone of Wales and Westmoreland is capable of being worked up 

 into agreeable dark marbles. 



In Scotland a fine variety of white marble is found in beds at Assynt in Suther- 



