Property from the Collection of the Late Paula and Don Gaston
An Italian Neoclassical Gilt-Bronze Mounted Breccia Verde d'Egitto Marble Gueridon, Rome, 19th Century
No reserve
Lot Closed
April 12, 03:36 PM GMT
Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Property from the Collection of the Late Paula and Don Gaston
An Italian Neoclassical Gilt-Bronze Mounted Breccia Verde d'Egitto Marble Gueridon, Rome, 19th Century
The circular top above a shallow frieze, and raised on tripod square tapering legs surmounted by gilt-bronze female busts capitals, and ending in sphinx feet joined by marble -inset base with black metal edging.
height 30 1/2 in.; diameter 20 1/2 in.
77.5 cm.; 52 cm
Sotheby's, London, 27 May 1988, lot 260.
Breccia Verde d'Egitto it is one of the rarest and most admired marbles. The ancient Romans called it lapis hecatontalithos, meaning 'stone of a hundred stones', again alluding to its wide variety of constituents. This marble is made up of a conglomerate containing many small fragments of porphyry, granite, basalts and quartz of different colors, bringing together the most beautiful stones of Egypt, in a green background, in varying degrees, from dark to very light, often yellowish and reddish. It can be admired in a few places in Italy.
For example, the 'Breccia Verde d'Egitto' columns of the Basilica San Vitale in Ravenna are famous.
The quarries, which were during Roman times owned by the Emperor of Rome, are located in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, in Wadi Hammamat (Mons Basanites) exploited discontinuously by the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies, and then systematically in Roman times.
An Italian side table with rare Breccia Verde d'Egitto top has been sold, Sotheby's Milan, June 14 2005, lot 387.
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