Corsi Collection of Decorative Stones

view of stone 874

Corsi 874, approx. 145 x 73 x 40 mm, © Oxford University Museum of Natural History

OUMNH Number: 874  
Name and quarry location: Granito orbiculare di Corsica, from shore of River Taravo, near Olmeto, Corse-du-Sud, Corsica, France  
Geological description: Orbicular diorite, the layers composed of plagioclase, hornblende, or a combination of these minerals.  
Comments: According to Corsi, this block is taken from the original boulder found as an isolated mass below Olmetto on the island of Corsica, France in 1785. The stone was later discovered in situ near Santa-Lucia-di-Tallano and named Napoleonite or Corsite. This deposit is largely worked out. Orbicular 'granites' have also been found at a number of locations around the world. An orbicular granite which can superficially resemble the Corsican stone comes from Boogardie in Western Australia, and has been worked for the commercial stone trade since 1986 (Price, 2007).  
References: Bevan (2004); Corsi (1825) 212-213; Price (2007) 229; Thomas (2000)  
Further information:
 


Corsi's classification: Class 16. Granites; ii. Italian granites  
Corsi's text: 212.26 Granito orbiculare di Corsica... ch' è stato trovato in una massa sotto Olmetto nell'isola di Corsica... Il saggio della collezione è di quello del 1785.  

Full entry in English

Enter some search terms
Show results as:

search tips

Searches the database for all stone records containing the words you enter. To search for a text string, put it between quotation marks. To search for stone records that don't contain a word, put a minus sign in front of it.

For example, entering: granite "coarse-grained" -Egypt will find all the coarse-grained granites that do not come from Egypt.

Terms of three characters or less have not been indexed.