Pair of 19th Century Marble Black Urns on a Pedestal shaped Base with hand made parchment shade with Gilt detail on the shades. H: to top of shade 22 3/4" Width of Marble Urn: 7 1/4", Width of shade:12"" Depth of shade:12" The early history of Marble from the Roman conquest of the Mediterranean basin provided access to colored stones: yellow marble (giallo antico) from Tunisia, purple and white marble (pavonazzetto) from Turkey, and red, green, and black marbles from Greece. Egypt was the richest source of color, providing red, gray, and black granite, basalts and sedimentary stones, and even black volcanic glass (obsidian). Sardonyx was imported from as far as India. With the rich colors the Romans were the first to use marble in slabs, as a wall application. This is because it was the Romans who invented cement, which was needed to hold the marble tiles in place. Henceforth, marble laboriously cut out of a quarry went much farther that when being used in solid blocks. The city of Rome was redone with marble, to become the most beautiful city in the known world. Most visitors to museums are used to seeing Roman sculpture in white marble. Since the Renaissance, white marble has been a preferred material for carving, and until recently ancient sculpture was often deliberately cleaned with dilute acid or the original painted decoration has been lost through natural processes. Surprisingly, however, the Romans were avid users of colored materials in sculpture. This elegant pair of Black Marble Urns would adorn any decor. LifestyleAntiques.com is the web site where one can shop on line or if you are in the area we are an antique dealer in Summerland, California just 3 minutes south of Santa Barbara. Specializing in European Antique Furniture and our accent is antique lighting for your home, or office with handmade parchment shades adorning the selection of unique lamps. We specialize in Decorative Arts and French furniture as well as antique furniture from Spain and Italy, you will find the shop warm and inviting.

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