An Introduction to Decorative Stone

Date: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Tutor: Ruth Siddall
Price: £25.00
Platform: Zoom
Time: This seminar will start at 3pm GMT
There will be a 55 minute presentation followed by 15 minutes of discussion.
Please register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1132431445939?aff=oddtdtcreator

Marble has been widely used as a decorative stone in art and architecture for: inlays (e.g. pietre dure or intarsia using cut and polished stones to create an image); revetment; flooring; table tops; chimney pieces as well as numerous other applications. This seminar will define the word ‘marble’ as used both by geologists and stone masons and define a language for describing these stones and look briefly at their distinguishing features, range of composition, history of use and geological provenance. Resources and practical knowledge which can help conservators and architectural historians identify these materials in architectural and archaeological settings are also discussed.

Ruth Siddall is a post doctoral Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin. She studied geology at the University of Birmingham and has a PhD in Geology and Earth Sciences from UCL, London where was also a lecturer in the Earth Sciences department.
Her work on archaeological plasters, mortars and concretes led to her interest in the mineralogy and chemistry of pigments. She is one of the four authors of The Pigment Compendium (2004).