Verd antique
Verd antique (obsolete French, from Italian, verde antico, "ancient green"), or verde antique, is a serpentinite breccia popular since ancient times as a decorative facing stone. It is a dark, dull green, white-mottled (or white-veined) serpentine, mixed with calcite, dolomite, or magnesite, which takes a high polish. It is sometimes classed, erroneously, as a variety of marble ("serpentine marble", "Connemara marble", "Moriah stone", etc). It has also been marketed as "ophicalcite" or "ophite".
Verd antique is used like marble especially in interior decoration and occasionally as outdoor trim, although the masses are frequently jointed and often only small slabs can be secured. It was known as lapis atracius to the ancient Romans and was quarried especially at Casambala, near Larissa, Thessaly, in Greece. The term "verd antique" has been documented in English texts as early as 1745.
Non-brecciated varieties of a very similar serpentinite, sometimes also called "verd antique", have been quarried at Victorville, San Bernardino County, California, at Cardiff, Harford County, Maryland, and at Lamoille County, Vermont.
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