A Tour of Chatsworth House - XI

A column of porta santa marble

By the time that I entered the Dome Room, on my tour of Chatsworth House to look at its decorative stones, I had encountered numerous examples of locally quarried stone that I could use to illustrate my forthcoming talk on “The Devonshire Marbles”, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the consecration of St. Peter’s church in Edensor. 

The Great Dining Room

Along the way, I had also seen a wide variety of marbles and granites, whose geological origin are in the countries that surround the Mediterranean Sea and at one time were administered by the Roman Empire. During his travels to Italy, William Cavendish established links with Faustino Corsi and others who were able to source rare stones. 

A column of porta santa marble

When entering the Great Dining Room, a column of porta santa marble from Chios in Greece is the first thing that I saw, with Italian white marble to its plinth and grey veined marble as panelling – presumably both from the Apuan Alps. 

Hopton Wood limestone skirting

As with the State Rooms in the old house, the space is dominated by the dining table and its fine contents, but I soon found what I think to be a variety of Hopton Wood limestone in the very high skirting. Further along the west wall, a very simple white marble fireplace is surrounded by statues made by Richard Westmacott the younger, whose work I was familiar with at the Royal Exchange in London. 

A fireplace with statues by Richard Westmacott

Just as I was about to leave the Great Dining Room, I noticed a very fine table top made out of Swedish red porphyry and a variety of Blue John vases, with Ashford Black Marble plinths.

A Swedish red porphyry table top and Blue John vases

When finally leaving, I came across columns of africano breccia, which was widely used in Classical times – with its source now confirmed as ancient Teos, now Siğacik, in the Izmir province of Turkey.

A column of africano breccia marble