150. URN with LID, Italy early 19th century, sculpted Greek porphyry, so called Lapis Spartanus/Lapis Lacedaemonius.

Square base, bell-shaped foot with bead, urn with oviod shape, upturned cover with knob, height 45 cm

PROVENANCE: The Simon Neal Collection

The lidded urn is sculpted in the rare Lapis Spartanus marble. With yellow and white snowflake-like crystals of feldspar, it belongs to the family of green porphyry marble originating from ancient Greece, commonly called Serpentine (Porfidi volgarmente detti Serpentini or Marble Lacedaemon). The stone species occurs mostly around Mount Taygetus, near the ancient Greek city of Sparta, in the region of Laconia, the marble is so rare that it is always only seen in small pieces. For this reason, the Italian lawyer and prominent collector of antique decorative stones, Avvocato Faustino Corsi (1771-1846) wrote that: “Not really in Rome there is neither a column, nor a bath, nor an urn of serpentine to be seen”. Therefore, in ancient times it was used mostly for floor covering, for example, at the Nymphaeum called the Cave of Egeria. The Roman bard Papinius Statius noted that the rocks of Sparta were green, and Pliny likened it to emerald (smeraldo), describing it as “more beautiful and vibrant than any other”. Pausanius believed that its pieces were carried by rivers, which may explain why pieces of serpentine are often found scattered and Lampridius recounted that Elagabalus laid lacodemonic porphyritic marble for the public squares of the Palatine in Rome. Although sometimes known as green porphyry, Corsi explains that it “is distinguished from porphyry by the singular shape of the markings, otherwise crystals, which are rather long and angular, are arranged in the shape of a star, and more commonly in the shape of the cross of St. Andrew”.

There have been various discussions and suggestions regarding the exact nature of this unusual stone. General agreement is that it appears to be a porphyritic rock with “floral” phenocrystals in white and olive yellow. However, Corsi's illustrated text for Lapis Spartanus indicates larger, more rectangular-shaped phenocrystals - of an ivory-white color. Interestingly, the Natural History Museum of Siena illustrates a section of “Krokaetis Lithos, Lapis Lacedaemonius, Green Porphyry of Greece or Serpentine - Inv. The No. 7031" in his archive showing similar colour variations and 'florescens'. Lapis Lacedaemonius is known also as “Krokean stone” - from its primary source the small town of Krokees south of Sparta. Difficult to work, but it was used to make vases in the Minoan era. Later, small sections were used in mosaics and the pavement at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The “Ancient Decorative Stones” from the Federico Pescetto and Pio De Santis collections were originally printed in 1986 by the Geological Survey of Italy and then published online in 2013 at the ISPRA virtual museum. In the online version, Chapter 4.2.2 illustrates excavated examples of Diabasian porphyrites, better known as “Lapis Lacedaemonius”, “Lapis Taygetus”, “Lapis Croceus” (an alternative spelling of Krokees), and “Lapis Spartanus”. The pages clearly show close similarities in style and composition to this lot with Fig. 88 showing similar color characteristics. Corsi describes the particular rock quarried from this area as; "797. (198.1) Serpentino, light green, with paler crystals tending to fade yellow "and also “806. (200.10) with a grassy green ground, with crystals of green shading to pale yellow”. Frustratingly - his own polished section of this stone, held in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, shows some of the “floral” characteristics of this vase- but lacks the colour variations seen in this turned vase and cover.