Columns: Oriental lumachella, also called lumachella antica or lumachella minuta d’Egitto, quarry at Henchir Kasbat (formerly Thuburbo Maius), in Tunisia.
Base in gilded bronze, plinth in Fior di pesco Apuano marble from the quarries of Tuscany, and capitals in gilded bronze: France, Neoclassical period.
H. of columns in lumachella antica: 142.5 cm. (57 in.).
Total H. with base and capital: 180 cm. (71 in.).
Terrace of the capitals in gilded bronze: 23.7 x 23.7 cm. (9 ¼ x 9 ¼ in.).
Bases in peach blossom marble: H. 25 cm. (10 in.); W. 28 cm. (11 in.); D. 28 cm. (11 in.).
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: 928(?)/DE(?)/N(?),inventory marks painted in red under the shaft of one of the two columns; I painted in black next to the preceding mark.
PROVENANCE: private collection.
Each of the columns presented here is composed of a precious, slightly tapered shaft 142.5 cm. high, with molded ends carved into the mass, in lumachella orientale, also known as lumachella antica or lumachella minuta d’Egitto, a rare Mesozoic limestone much prized by Rome’s scalpellini (stonemasons), whose quarries at the famous site of Henchir Kasbat – formerly Thuburbo Maius – in Tunisia, now closed, were exploited in Roman antiquity.
Very rare examples of columns similar to our own were included in the Borghese collections in Rome. A pair of these columns were part of the famous Borghese purchases by Napoleon in 1807.
