Pair of gilt bronze and porphyry antique French jardinières

These fine antique jardinières are made of precious porphyry, a material that has been highly prized since ancient times on account of its scarcity.

Porphyry was originally used in the ancient Egyptian Empire taken from the Mons Porphyrites, at the time the only known mining area for porphyry. Porphyry became extremely popular amongst the Romans during the Roman Tetrarchy (late 3rd century) and its purple color was so admired that its use was reserved solely for the Emperors. Constantine used circles of porphyry for the floors of his palaces, in rooms only he was allowed to enter and into which his sons were born, and the stone was also used in the construction of important burial sarcophagi. The rare stone has ever since been prized as a very important and desirable material and was later used in the decoration of St. Peter’s Basilica and for the construction of important crowned busts.