Corsi Collection of Decorative Stones

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view of stone 626

Corsi 626, approx. 145 x 73 x 40 mm, © Oxford University Museum of Natural History

OUMNH Number: 626  
Name and quarry location: Pietra del Vesuvio, from Mt. Vesuvius, Naples, Campania, Italy  
Geological description: A carbonate-rich laminated water-lain tuff, probably a volcanogenic sediment. It has alternating dark and light grey layers, the former showing occasional rip-ups. Half of the specimen comprises a dark grey graded coarser layer and a light grey well-graded finer layer; the coarser layer contains aligned dark angular clasts which are possibly fluid-escape veinlets.  
Comments: Similar samples in the Museum’s historic Daubeny collection are labelled 'marble … ejected mass [from] Fossa Grande', a deep ravine on the flanks of Vesuvius. Small slabs of the various stones from Vesuvius were sold to 'grand tourists'. For example, when Jane and Mary Parminter returned to England in the 18th century, they had their souvenirs inlaid in a table-top, now to be seen at A La Ronde, a National Trust property in Devon, England.  
References: Price (2007) 214. Other examples: Daubeny coll. 5435, 5437, and particularly 5436, Oxford University Museum of Natural History.  
Further information:
 


Corsi's classification: Class 8. Volcanic stones; i. Stones from Vesuvius  
Corsi's text: 154.6 Pietra del Vesuvio. Altro [Lava]  

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