LESSON XXXI.
DESCRIPTION OF VARIOUS MARBLES, GRANITES AND PORPHYRIES—CONTINUED.
SERPENTINE MARBLE.
159. This marble is probably but a variation of the verd antique, which it closely resembles in all its colorings. It contains more veinings than the other, although it, too, shows up clumps of conglomerate very much the same in formation; as a full description of verd antique is given in the subsequent paragraph, the student can vary from the directions given in so far as to introduce the veinings mentioned which the other has but few of.
VERD ANTIQUE.
160. Verd antique marble is really a modified Egyptian, being somewhat more blotchy than its cousin the Egyptian green marble. The ground should be made from Prussian blue and yellow ochre to make a brownish green, then dab some of each of the separate colors blue and yellow where the blotches are desired; then connect them by veinings and blend, touching up afterwards with fresh color parts which should show prominently, but be careful not to overdo this, as but little of the full tone of the yellow should show or it will make it look unnatural.
WHITE VEINED MARBLE.
BLACK VEINED WHITE MARBLE.
161. These two marbles are bracketed together, as with the exception of the ground color and the reversing of the color used in the veining they are so much alike that the same description will do for each of them. They are veined marbles, and many specimens show fissures which for the sake of naturalness and variety may be imitated but very sparingly, as really it is a defect.
The ground for these marbles should be white lead; for the white veined proceed to dab on patches of black with a small tool and blend the black with the white all over, but have the ground darker in parts than in others, varying from a gray to nearly true black, but of the latter sparingly. A few white blotches and main white coarse veins are left, and the white veins are put in with flake white, which will blend into the ground and serve to give the proper transparency. When dry the pure white veins must be touched in order to bring them out.
For the black-veined variety the white lead ground is gone over here and there, but not too much of it, with a touch of black which must be vigorously worked into the white to produce a few blotches of light, faint gray not prominent at all. The veining is gray of a trifle darker tone, which is called black by courtesy and as a contrast to the white of the ground.
162. The above comprise about all the leading varieties of marbles. There are many other varieties, chiefly of those described, and differing from them chiefly in their coloring, their imitation being the same excepting that.