A COLLECTION OF ANCIENT MARBLE SPECIMENS
A COLLECTION OF ANCIENT MARBLE SPECIMENS
A COLLECTION OF ANCIENT MARBLE SPECIMENS
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A COLLECTION OF ANCIENT MARBLE SPECIMENS
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This lot will be removed to Christie’s Park Royal.… Read more
A COLLECTION OF ANCIENT MARBLE SPECIMENS

PROBABLY ASSEMBLED IN THE 19TH CENTURY

Details
A COLLECTION OF ANCIENT MARBLE SPECIMENS
PROBABLY ASSEMBLED IN THE 19TH CENTURY
378 polished rectangular specimens with manuscript labels, Breccia Quintilina, Giallo Tigrato, Breccia Policroma, Breccia Dorata Breccia Frutticolosa, amongst others. The 2x4-inch specimens arranged in eight drawers of 42 and two of 21, housed in a 20th century pine collectors cabinet.
38½ x 20 x 16½in. (98 x 51 x 42.5cm.)
Provenance
Sold by Gregory Botley & Co, March 1955, for £100
Thence by descent
Literature
Many illustrated in H.W Pullen, trans. F.P. Crocenzi, Manuale dei Marmi Romani Antichi, Rome 2015
Special notice
This lot will be removed to Christie’s Park Royal. Christie’s will inform you if the lot has been sent offsite. Our removal and storage of the lot is subject to the terms and conditions of storage which can be found at Christies.com/storage and our fees for storage are set out in the table below - these will apply whether the lot remains with Christie’s or is removed elsewhere. Please call Christie’s Client Service 24 hours in advance to book a collection time at Christie’s Park Royal. All collections from Christie’s Park Royal will be by pre-booked appointment only. Tel: +44 (0)20 7839 9060 Email: cscollectionsuk@christies.com. If the lot remains at Christie’s it will be available for collection on any working day 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. Lots are not available for collection at weekends.

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James Hyslop
James Hyslop

Lot Essay

The Grand Tour saw many English collectors return home with specimens of Roman and decorative marbles, sometimes cut from columns found in the Tiber, and regularly they were fashioned into fine pietra dura tabletops. Very rarely they were kept as mineralogical collections -- a famous example being the Corsi collection in Oxford. Not only are these collections useful identification guides for scholars, but also they are important survivals since some of the quarries that produced these decorative stones in Antiquity are now lost.

For a full listing of the marble specimens present please contact the department.

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