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| A detail of marbles in the North Corridor |
My tour of Chatsworth House in Derbyshire started with the magnificent floor of the North Corridor, which the article by Ian Thomas and Mick Cooper in the Mercian Geologist describes as being installed by Leonardi, a poor man who lives at the Forum in Rome.
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| The marble floor in the North Corridor |
This article goes on further to state that the star pattern includes diaspro tenero di Sicilia, possibly giallo antico from Chimou in Tunisia, which is based on entries for these stones in Decorative Stone - The Complete Sourcebook by Monica Price, and a white marble from the Apuan Alps,
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| A detail of the star pattern |
This book is largely based on the Corsi Collection of Decorative Stones at the Oxford UniversityMuseum of Natural History and, as a geologist with specialist interests in the identification and matching of stone, developed while working in the building restoration industry, I think that these are reasonable conclusions.
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| Diaspro tenero di Sicilia in Decorative Stone - The Complete Sourcebook |
William Cavendish, the 6th Duke of Devonshire, first visited Italy in 1819 and acquired a great love of its architecture, sculpture and decorative stones – making friends with Faustino Corsi, an accomplished lawyer who had a fascination with the marbles that were used in Ancient Rome.
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| Giallo antico |
Work to the north wing, including remodelling of the north elevation of the existing C17 house, was undertaken 1818-1842 by Sir Jeffry Wyatville and William Cavendish visited Italy several times during this period. It is therefore a reasonable assumption that the dozen distinct varieties of marbles that I can determine in the floor are all from Italy.
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| A detail of marbles in the North Corridor |
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