“Black porphyry column”
Egyptian
19th Century or earlier
column segment.
The only column of the same material we can trace is in the mineral gallery at Chatsworth, acquired by the 5th Duke and currently catalogued as Italian. his column has a form of attaching a capital or secondary barrel that can first be seen in Greek architecture of the 5th century BCE. It has one deep central square hole and a secondary one closer toward the parameter, this would allow a bronze insert like a double staple to be inserted that would add structural integrity and make it nearly impossible to rotate.
£18,000
A Roman Breccia Pavonazza di Ezine “Palatine marble” column segment.
One can see the same stone used in the remains of the floor of the Domus Severiana. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Anatolian quarries that supplied this marble were left abandoned for millennia. When rediscovered in recent times, the quarry was so depleted objects of such scale could never to be produced again.