Malachite

Copper-green stone. In ceramics, the term denotes a glaze used to create pottery with the copper-green colour of malachite. Powdered malachite was long used in wall painting, but is only rarely used in easel painting. Deposits of malachite were discovered in Siberia in 1635, and thereafter malachite vessels were produced in the Kremlin workshops. Objects made of malachite were fashionable in the first half of the 19th century, reaching their technical height from 1830 to 1840 with ten columns (h. 9 m) for St Isaac's Cathedral in St Petersburg (in situ), but also being used for table-tops and other decorative items such as urns (e.g. the massive malachite urn presented to George IV by the Tsar; Windsor Castle, Royal Col.). Later in the century Carl Fabergé used malachite for small objects.
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© Grove Art / OUP

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