{"product_id":"grand-tour-black-porphyry-plinths","title":"Grand Tour Black Porphyry Plinths","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA pair of small Grand Tour plinths, each a turned cylinder of black porphyry set on an ogee socle of white Carrara marble. Italian, after 1800.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy we love it\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBlack porphyry — \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eporfido nero antico\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e — is the scarcest of the antique porphyries, worked from Egyptian quarries and always in far smaller quantity than the imperial purple variety. Its dense, near-black groundmass is scattered with pale feldspar crystals.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe pairing of black and white specimen marbles was a favourite conceit of Roman workshops supplying travellers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"s1\"\u003eThe Egyptian quarries were shut in late antiquity and effectively never worked again, so nothing has come out of the ground for some 1,500 years. Everything cut since — Renaissance objects and small Grand Tour pieces such as these — was salvaged from Roman columns or fragments, which accounts for the modest scale of most surviving examples.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePlinths of this scale were made to raise something small and good: a bronze reduction, an intaglio, a fragment of antiquity, a wax portrait. Used as a pair they work well as objects in their own right.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDimensions\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBase (diameter): 11 cm \/ 4.5”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"s1\"\u003eTop (diameter): 8 cm \/ 3.25”\u003cbr\u003eHeight: 6.5 cm \/ 2.5”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eCondition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eReady for placement and immediate use. Historic chips as is evident from the images.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Peacock's Finest","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57041581310278,"sku":null,"price":1640.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0845\/3138\/0550\/files\/896544B0-925D-49E7-B66B-28BE63F508A7.jpg?v=1785409384","url":"https:\/\/peacocksfinest.com\/products\/grand-tour-black-porphyry-plinths","provider":"Peacock's Finest","version":"1.0","type":"link"}