Marble is frequently used to surface different
pieces of furniture - commodes, secrétaires,
tables, consoles, and pedestal tables. During
the Renaissance, marble was applied to the facades
of sculpted coffers. Louis XIV was a keen supporter
of marble sculptors and by the reign of Louis
XV, the use of marble was particularly widespread.
Under Louis XVI, the fashion was for sobriety
and the marbles used were uniform whites and
grays. With the Empire, blacks and greens were
added and the cuts became more angular, distinguishing
them from previous styles where rounded edges
were broken by one or two grooves. The Restoration
of Louis XVIII and Charles X saw colors become
softer - lighter grays and whites became the
fashion.
Louis Philippe and Napoléon III brought
back black but the edges had molding, "doucine"
(a curve refined at the edges by two slight counter-curves)
or grooves. In the Art Deco period, marble was
often used in conjunction with wrought iron.
In France, the main marble quarries are in the
Pyrenees, Brittany, Flanders and the Jura, each
one having different characteristics. The frequently
used "breccia" (brèches in French)
is composed of fragments of rocks of several
different colors: the "Brèche d'Alep"
(Sarcolin quarry in the Pyrenees) has a yellow
background and brown, reddish, gray and black
fragments. The "Brèche violet"
has fragments of violet next to white or brown.
The "Sainte Anne des Pyrenees" is pale
gray, the "Sainte Anne français",
from quarries in the north, is a deeper gray.
"Campan melangé" (Pyrenees)
has a pink background streaked with green and
red. Red Campan was used for the Château
de Versailles and was called "Royal Red";
it is deep purple with some purplish-blue and
pink, white and, more rarely, pale green streaks.
The "Fleur de Pêcher" is pink
with ochre and gray veins. The "Rouge de
Languedoc" is rosy red mottled with pale
gray and with wide white veins. From Belgian
quarries came a red marble "Rance"
which had large white and gray splashes sprinkled
with small gray and pink fragments calles "rats'
tails". "Royal Belge" is a uniform
deep red color.
The Italian marbles preferred for furnishing
are "Portor", black finely veined with
gray and white and mottled with an orangey yellow
and "Bleu Turquin" - grayish blue with
black and white striations.
