THE PROTAGONIST OF THIS COMMENTARY CAN ONLY BE THE VERY SPECIAL MARBLE DRESS OF OUR PARISIAN POMPADOUR GALBE', WHICH FIREPLACE, ALTHOUGH OF THE RIGHT ANTIQUE (NAPOLEON III, THE HAPPIEST PERIOD IN THE SPHERE OF QUALITY AND STYLISM, WHATEVER THE ERREMOSE ANTIQUARIANS WITH CASHMERE JACKETS AND PATEK PHILIPPE ON THEIR WRISTS MAY SAY), ALTHOUGH IN PERFECT CONDITION, WITHOUT ITS MARBLE REFINED “DRESS,” WOULD STAND OUT LITTLE FROM ITS NUMEROUS BRETHREN.
THEN LET'S TALK ABOUT HIS AMAZING AS RARE MARBLE (This last adjective, apparently superlative, is not to be considered exaggerated; suffice it to say that in our storage, to date composed of about 1,000 mantels, THE ONLY Pompadour in Levanto Red marble is this one I am presenting to you).
A marble as splendid as it is mysterious, the RED LEVANTO MARBLE. So fascinating was it, this marble, that it was quarried since the time of the Etruscans (who made ornamental statuettes out of it..) and was used, in antiquity, for very important monuments (see the Cathedral of Genoa and many other Ligurian Sanctuaries..), but perhaps its most loyal admirers were the Savoy family, who decided on its privileged use for the royal palace of Santa Maria Novella (Florence) and even for their “Principe di Piemonte” bathing establishment in Viareggio.
And so far I have praised the aesthetic characteristics of the marble in this fireplace....
But why do I also call this marble by the adjective “mysterious”?
Well (and what I am describing to you is a situation that always strikes me as much as if it were the first time..), Well, I was saying, try to take a good look at it (but it will have to be done in person and not through these, however beautiful, photographs of us.. ), try to stare at its surfaces and you will notice how that red color that immediately seems dominant, slowly as inexorably, like a miracle, a magician's trick, gives way to happily “blackish” atmospheres (these are inclusions of Serpentine, basically a crystal, and then, again, to fretting of a deep White, perhaps unsurpassed in its brilliance (this is calcium carbonate that has the characteristic of being extremely pure, even purer than the same carbonate of which the noblest of white marbles, Carrara Statuary, is composed) and, lastly, to delicate areas of amethyst (a quality of quartz) whose violet tones appear to be a kind of gradient.
SOON, AS HAPPENS ALL TOO OFTEN BECAUSE OF VORACIOUS “MODERN” CONSUMERISM, THE ALREADY VERY LIMITED QUARRYING TODAY OF THIS MARBLE FULL OF HISTORY AND NOBILITY WILL (AS HAS ALREADY HAPPENED TO THE OTHER MARBLE OF LA SPEZIA, THE MYTHICAL PORTORO MARBLE) BE STOPPED BY THE MINISTRY OF CULTURAL HERITAGE SO THAT ENOUGH MATERIAL REMAINS FOR THE NECESSARY RESTORATIONS OF THE MANY NATIONAL MONUMENTS CARVED IN “OUR” RED LEVANTO.
