"My eyes, accustomed to beds (...) with golden bronzes and turquin blue marbles, watched with a kind of terror the great carved sideboards"
- Victor Hugo, Alps and Pyrenees, 1885, p.110
Turquin Blue is an italian marble, also called bardiglio (bardiole) which has the specificity of changing color when it is heated. This beautiful blue-gray marble with white and black stripes exist in differents varieties : dark and clear. The second one was especially appreciated during the reign of Louis XVI and during the First Empire. His sober tone matches very well with neoclassical style furniture. In the creation of mantels, it is often ornamented with gilt bronzes. Such as the fireplace in the Petit Trianon at Versailles, in the dining room.
Most interesting Turquin blue marbles are quarried from Seravezza, near Carrara. It is also mined in France in Allier, Ariege, Languedoc, the Pyrenees and Haute Garonne. Particularly appreciated for furniture (consoles top, chests ...) it is also used in architecture such as balustrades (railing of Church St. Sulpice Choir in Paris) or altars (Amiens Cathedral and Sees Cathedral for example).
