material / stone / bluestone
material / stone / brownstone
material / stone / carbonate
material / stone / conglomerate
material / stone / grain
material / stone / granite
material / stone / igneous
material / stone / limestone
material / stone / manganese
material / stone / marble
material / stone / metamorphic
material / stone / mica
material / stone / property
material / stone / pyroxene
material / stone / quartz
material / stone / sandstone
material / stone / sedimentary
material / stone / silica
material / stone / tufa
material / stone / volcanic
- bluestone: A compact and durable bluish gray sandstone of fine texture used for paving, coping, stair treads, etc. Quarried in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains in New York State.
- Genessee Valley bluestone: A dark gray stone of New York State used for trim, flagging, and steps.
- Kentucky bluestone: A light bluish gray sandstone, hard and durable.
- North River bluestone: A New York stone used for trim, curbing, and paving.
- Pennsylvania bluestone: Also called Wyoming Valley stone, a fine-grain, compact, hard sandstone of gray-red, gray-green, or blue-gray; used for trim, paving, etc.
material / stone / brownstone
- brownstone: Brown sandstone from the Connecticut River Valley or the banks of the Hackensack River. Soft, porous, and perishable. 2. A building, especially a row house, fronted with a reddish-brown sandstone.
- Connecticut brownstone: One of the first building stones to be widely used in America; fine grain, even texture, of a uniform, warm brown.
- Hummelstown brownstone: A dense and massive sandstone, quarried in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, varying from reddish to purplish brown.
- calcite: Calcium carbonate in hexagonal crystals. Massive varieties are chalk, limestone, and marble.
- dolomite: A crystalline calcium magnesium carbonate, white to pale pink, resembling marble.
- malachite: Carbonate of copper of a green color, silky or velvety luster, and pronounced concretionary structure. A little harder than common marble, but cuts to a sharp edge and acquires a good polish. To be had only in small pieces, and the table tops, vases and other works of art constructed from it are invariably patchwork veneers. The principal source of the commercial article is the Ural Mountains.
- marbling: Any stone consisting essentially of carbonate lime, or the carbonates of lime and magnesia, and of such color and texture as to make it desirable for the higher grades of building, monumental, or decorative work…
material / stone / conglomerate
- conglomerate: Any rock made up of rounded pebbles, like a consolidated gravel, differing from sandstone only in the size of its particles. Siliceous conglomerates are sometimes used for building, and calcareous conglomerates for marbles.
- peperino: A volcanic conglomerate of ashes and gravel found in considerable quantities in the Alban Hills, near Rome, and much used in and near Rome in ancient and modern times. The name is given to other conglomerates found elsewhere in Italy; as it is suggested by the resemblance of the black spots to peppercorns.
- pudding-stone: Conglomerate, also called plumb-pudding stone… consisting of a mass of rounded flint pebbles cemented together by a siliceous matrix of a light yellow-brown color, capable of receiving a high polish, used in inlay and other ornamental work.
- Rustic Buff: A grade of fairly uniform color but of coarser texture than Select or Standard; ranging from finest grain to coarse, shelly, honey-comb formation.
- Select Buff: A fine-grain buff of uniform texture and color.
- Select Buff Statuary Stock: A very fine-grain, uniform buff, produced in limited quantities and used chiefly for sculpture and interior carving.
- Select Gray: A fine-grain gray of uniform texture and color.
- Special Hard Buff: A dense, hard, and somewhat crystalline variety.
- Special Hard Gray: Like the Special Hard Buff except for color.
- Standard Buff: The finegrain buff variety that constitutes the major part of the buff output.
- Standard Gray: The fine-grain gray widely used for general building purposes.
- bastard granite: A quarrier’s term for nearly any stone which he may not consider a true granite; particularly applied to gneiss.
- Bear’s Den Gray: A granite of warm gray color, medium grain, quarried at Mason, New Hampshire.
- Bellingham: A medium- to coarse-grained granite, pink, black, and pearl gray with some thin, black lines; quarried in Bellingham, Minnesota.
- Black Diamond: Igneous rock of the gabbro or “black granite” class, with a fine and uniform grain; quarried at Escondido, California.
- Black Vista: A cross-grained, easily worked granite, classed among the blacks; quarried near San Diego, California.
- Chelmsford Gray: A light gray, medium-grain, muscovite-biotite granite of Massachusetts, used for heavy masonry and monumental building.
- Chelmsford White: A very light-color granite of medium grain, its pinkish trend revealed in polished finish; quarried at West Chelmsford, Massachusetts.
- Cold Spring Agate: A medium- to coarse-grain granite, reddish with broad, dark veining and a clouding of red, pearl gray, and a bluish shade, quarried at Odessa, Minnesota.
- Cold Spring Carnelian: A porphyritic granite of medium grain and a general brownish red color, quarried at Milbank, South Dakota.
- Cold Spring Diamond Pink: A coarse-grain granite, pinkish with mixed pearl gray and reddish colorings, quarried at St. Cloud, Minnesota.
- Cold Spring Pearl Pink: A porphyritic granite of medium grain, quarried at Cold Spring, Minnesota.
- Cold Spring Pearl White: A light pink granite, classed as white, of medium grain, quarried at Isle, Minnesota.
- Cold Spring Rainbow: A medium- to coarse-grain pink granite with black and gray wavings, quarried at Morton, Minnesota.
- Cold Spring Red: A medium-grain reddish granite with black and gray spottings, quarried at Odessa, Minnesota.
- Cordova pink: A coarse-grain, deep pink granite, mottled with black; quarried in Llano County, Texas.
- Deer Isle: A coarse, pinkish lavender-tinted, medium-gray granite of Maine.
- Diamond Gray: A coarse-grain granite in gray with brown and black markings; quarried at Isle, Minnesota.
- French Creek granite: A fine-grain, hard, dark-colored granite of Pennsylvania; when polished the surface is almost black, the hammered faces light.
- granite: The hard, fine-textured indigenous (solidified from a liquid state) stone of mixed quartz, mica, and other ingredients. As opposed to sedimentary stones (limestone, brownstone) that erode and wear out; granite is forever.
- Hallowell granite: A light gray of fine texture, of Maine, used for monumental work, buildings, and bridges.
- Imperial Mahogany: A medium-grain granite, pinkish with black and gray spottings; quarried near Minneapolis, Minnesota.
- Jonesboro: A pinkish gray biotite granite of Maine, with a medium-coarse grain.
- Labradorite: Labrador rock; a variety of feldspar possessing a beautiful bluish iridescence. Little used in America, but extensively used by the Russians. Found in Labrador and Russia, and Fingspong, Sweden. A less iridescent variety is quarried under the name of ausable granite near Keeseville, New York.
- Lithonia granite: A blue-gray, fine-grain granite of Georgia.
- Milford pink granite: A pink of medium to coarse grain, mottled with black mica spottings, quarried in Massachusetts; it is used for monumental and general building work.
- Millstone: A buff, blue, and pink granite of Connecticut.
- Minnesota Black: An igneous rock of the gabbro or “black granite” class, of medium grain, quarried at Ely, Minnesota.
- Missouri Red granite: Of medium to coarse grain and a rich red color.
- Mt. Airy granite: Trade name for a medium-grain even-textured, light gray to nearly white biotite granite quarried at Mt. Airy, North Carolina. There is also a White Mt. Airy, very light gray with predominant colors of black and white and a few faint pink quartz crystals scattered through it; the stone is of medium grain.
- Mt. Waldo: A light to medium gray granite of Maine.
- Oglesby Blue granite: A fine-grain biotite granite of Georgia, with an azure blue color, taking a high polish.
- Opalescent: A dark greenish gray gabbro “granite” with black and brown spottings, of coarse grain; quarried at Cold Spring, Minnesota.
- Oriental: A medium-grain pink granite with black and gray wavings; quarried at Morton, Minnesota.
- Palmer granite: A pinkish biotite granite of medium texture, from Maine.
- Qunicy granite: A hornblende pyroxene granite of Quincy, Massachusetts; from medium gray or bluish gray to a very dark bluish gray, all with blue or blue-black spots; its texture is from medium to coarse with even grain, taking a high polish because of the absence of mica.
- Raymond granite: A biotite-muscovite, light gray, with biotite mica in excess of the muscovite, and an occasional crystal of black hornblende; this is a medium-fine-grain granite of California.
- Rocklin granite: A light-colored granite of California, somewhat similar to Raymond granite.
- Rockville: A coarse-grained granite with feldspars one-half inch to three-quarters inch across; color is pinkish gray, and it consists of pale pink feldspar, quartz, and black mica; quarried at St. Cloud, Minnesota.
- Somes Sound granite: A bitite granite of Maine; coarse, inclined to medium grain in a light grayish buff.
- Stone Mountain granite: A medium-grain granite formerly quarried in Georgia; widely used, of uniform light gray.
- Stonington Pink Gray granite: Also see Deer Isle.
- Stony Creek granite: A warm reddish granite of Connecticut, varying from medium to coarse grain, with bold veinings.
- Swenson Buff Antique: A muscovite-biotite granite of light to medium grayish buff color and fine to medium grain; quarried at Concord, New Hampshire.
- Swenson Pink Granite: A biotite granite of light pink color, medium to coarse grain, with occasional waves of closely segregated black and pink stripes; quarried at North Berwick, Maine.
- syene granite: Egyptian syenite; granito rosso. A coarse, red granite occurring at Syene, in Egypt and much used by the ancient Egyptians in the monoliths and temples. The various obelisks, like those in Paris and New York, are of this material.
- syenite: Rock of the nature of granite but containing little or no quartz.
- Texas Pink granite: A light pink, medium grain; quarried at Marble Falls, Texas.
- thermal granite: Sawn slabs of granite, the surface of which has been treated under intense flames, producing a roughened texture, as at the CBS building by Eero Saarinen.
- Varitone Mahogany: A medium-grain granite, reddish with black and gray spottings, quarried at Ortonville, Minnesota.
- Veined Ebony: Igneous rock of the gabbro or “black granite” class, of medium grain with pronounced darker veins, quarried at Mellen, Wisconsin.
- Vinal Haven granite: An even-textured, fine-grain, light gray granite of Maine, used for monumental work.
- Weymouth Seam-Face granite: A Massachusetts stone with color blendings of brown or of golden yellow-green; of fine grain, giving fine and easily split seams, divided into plane sheets of one inch to eight feet thick with no further dressing required.
- basalt: An igneous rock of fine grain, high density, and dark color.
- diabase: A granular igneous rock, dark gray to black, sometimes called dolerite.
- diorite: Granular, crystallized igneous stone composed of feldspar and hornblende.
- gabbro: Family name for igneous granular stone composed chiefly of pyroxene, augite or diallage, and plagioclase.
- igneous rock: A class of rock formed by the crystallization of molten magma, as granite.
- porphyry: A fine-textured and hard stone, mostly in crimsons and greens, taking a high polish.
- Bath Stone: Bath Oolite; a light cream-colored or nearly white, soft, oolitic limestone from the English Jurassic formations.
- Bedford stone: Bedford Oolite; a light-colored oolitic limestone from Lawrence County, Indiana. One of the best of American limestones for general structural purposes.
- Caen: Soft, fine-grained, easily-worked limestone from near Caen, Normandy, used in several English medieval buildings…
- Caen stone: A stone from Caen, in Normandy, used in some medieval buildings in England.
- calcaire grossiere: A fossiliferous limestone of the Paris basin, locally used for building.
- calcaire-grossiere: A fossiliferous limestone of the Paris basin, locally used for building.
- chalk: A limestone composed mainly of the calcareous tests of foraminifera, though containing, also, shells of larger mollusks. When much indurated, as in the valley of the Seine, it is used as a building material.
- Comblanchien: A compact, fine-grained, oolitic limestone of a rose putty color, having very fine fossils and some rust specks and glass veins. It is quarried in southern France.
- coquina: Soft, porous limestone composed of broken shells, corals, and other organic debris.
- coral rock: A limestone composed mainly of coral fragments.
- falchion: As mouchette.
- Indiana limestone: Oolitic limestone produced by a group of quarries in the state and sold under the following variety names.
- Kentish rag: A rough limestone found in Kent and used as external masonry.
- limestone: A sedimentary rock formed chiefly by the accumulation of organic remains, as shells and coral, consisting mainly of calcium carbonate, and used as a building stone and in the manufacture of lime.
- Minnesota Mankato: A fine-to coarse-grained, compact, semicrystalline, dolomitic limestone, sometimes cellular in texture, and ranging from buff to cream, yellow, and gray. There are also pink and pink-buff varieties.
- Missouri marble: Crystalline limestone from the lower carboniferous strata, generally gray with a slight bluish tint and consisting of irregular grains of calcite and shells bound in a mass of calcite. Suture joints occur parallel to the bedding and about two inches to twenty inches apart. Ozark Gray is quarried at Carthage, Napolean Gray at Phoenix. At Marlo a different range of monotone and decorative marbles are produced under the trade names of Adorado, Eldorado, Graydorado, Hondorado, Indorado, and Sheldorado.
- mouchette: A French limestone, a variation of Comblanchien. Of buff ground with some tendency to rose and gold veins and with characteristic fossilistic and glass speckles. 2. A daggerlike motif found especially in Gothic tracery, formed by elliptical and ogee curves.
- nummulitic limestone: A limestone composed largely of fossil nummulites. The pyramid of Cheops is largely of this stone.
- Onondaga limestone: A common sedimentary rock consisting mostly of calcium carbonate, used as a building stone and in the manufacture of lime, carbon dioxide, and cement. Common from eastern Finger Lakes region of west-central New York.
- oolite: The granular variety of calcium carbonate, a building stone of fine texture, of which there are vast deposits in Lawrence, Monroe, and Owen Counties in Indiana.
- oolitic limestone: The granular variety of calcium carbonate, a building stone of fine texture, of which there are vast deposits in Lawrence, Monroe, and Owen Counties in Indiana.
- Portland: Type of white oölitic limestone from Portland, Dorset, often quarried to provide ashlar facades of public buildings from the time of Wren…
- Portland stone: A limestone found in the Isle of Portland, England.
- Purbeck: Dark-grey or grey-greenish hard limestone, called a marble, originating in the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset, England, and almost entirely composed of univalve and bivalve remains fossilized and bound together…
- Purbeck stone: A buff limestone bearing many fossils, from the Isle of Purbeck, England.
- Rockwood oolitic limestone: A light gray or buff even-textured variety quarried near Rockwood, Franklin County, Alabama.
- Roman travertine: A variety of limestone deposited by springs; usually banded; commonly coarsely cellular; used as building stone, especially for interior facing and flooring.
- travertine: A variety of limestone deposited by springs; usually banded; commonly coarsely cellular; used as building stone, especially for interior facing and flooring.
- rhodonite: A silicate of manganese of a pink or red color, frequently streaked and spotted. Hard and tough, and with a close textures. Little used in America, but a favorite material with the Russians. Found in commercial quantities only in the Urals.
- thulite stone: A red or pink manganese epidote of a fine granular texture and pleasing color. As yet but little used. Found at Hinderheim, Norway.
- Alabama marble: A fine-grained white variety, the chief attractiveness of which is due to its life and warmth of coloring – for the most part a cream white rather than the bluish white common to Italian white marbles. Some of the commercial grades are: Clouded “A,” Cream “A,” Selected Cream, Madre Clouded, Madre Cream, Madre Vein, and Veined Cream.
- alabastrites: In Roman archaeology, a semiprecious stone, probably the Oriental or calcareous alabaster.
- Alps Green: A brecciated serpentine marble from Italy, in many varieties. All have the same geological formation but vary considerably in appearance, running from a very deep to a very light green mass, infiltrated with calcite. This causes light green and white veins, which spread at times into broader veins and patches.
- Arizona marble: Varying to the extent of every color of the spectrum and in a wide scale of veinings. The principal productions are known as Apache Gold, Geronimo, and Navajo Black and Gold.
- Bardiglio: A marble available in several varieties, generally having a bluish gray ground traversed by dark veins. It is quarried at Mont’s Alto in southern Tuscany. In one variety, Bardiglio Fiorito, the veining gives a fancied resemblance to flowers.
- Bardiglio marble: A marble available in several varieties, generally having a bluish gray ground traversed by dark veins. It is quarried at Mont’s Alto in southern Tuscany. In one variety, Bardiglio Fiorito, the veining gives a fancied resemblance to flowers.
- Belgian Black: A marble from Belgium of a deep, uniform black, and very hard.
- Black-and-Gold: A marble of which the best quality has a jet-black ground with chain veining of old-gold color in fairly even pattern. It comes from the Isle of Tino, Gulf of Spezia, Italy.
- Bleu Belge: A marble having a blue-black ground with this, straight, pure white veins suggesting in pattern the twigs of a tree. As the name suggests, it comes from Belgium.
- Bois Jourdain: A French fossiliferous marble, dark gray in tone, having white veins with a reddish tinge and small red markings.
- Botticino: An Italian marble of two kinds: Light, having a light coffee color with lighter, creamy-white patches, and also characterized by slender, wavy, golden-brown veins and very thin, hardly noticeable veins of calcite; Botticino Dark, a brownish cream or light brown color with clouds of darker shade scattered through the mass, and with very small hairlike veins of yellow.
- Breccia marble: Any stone composed of angular fragments embedded and consolidated in a finer ground. Numerous marbles owe their distinctive appearance to brecciation.
- Brignoles: A family name for three marbles of French origin: Jaune de Brignoles, having a light yellowish and gold ground, streaked with interlacing veins of vivid pink and red, and also bearing spots, streaks, and clouds of crystalline white; Rose de Brignoles and Violet de Brignoles have much the same description but with more rose and violet spots, respectively.
- Buffneato: A marble of buff ground color, varying slightly in tone, with numerous tiny dark brown specks and fossils, evenly distributed. It is quarried near Trieste.
- Campan marbles: A group name for a wide variegated French marbles quarried in the Campan district, Hautes-Pyrenees. Some of the names are Campan Griotte, Melange, Rouge, Vert Truite, Vert, and Vert. They range from a rich red ground with interlacings of very fine green veins, including large streaks and veins of white, to a light green ground broken by a lacework of fine dark-green veins.
- Carrara: Quarried in Northern Italy, a type of close-textured marble, suited for funerary monuments and other sculpture.
- Carrara marble: A group name for marble quarried in the neighborhood of Carrara, Massa, and Seravezza, Italy. Best-known varieties are: Statuary White, Bianco P (Puro), Pavonazzo, English Vein, Veined Italian, and Bianco Chiaro.
- Champville: A marble quarried in southern France. It has a creamy ground of even and close texture, more or less tinged with yellow and sometimes rose, with occasional gray spots.
- Cipollino: Also see Cipollino marble.
- Cipollino marble: Also see Cipollino marble.
- Colorado Travertine: A marble with a color range from cream to pink and rose. Color-crème and Colorosa are trade names.
- Cremo: An Italian marble often graded as: first quality, with cream ground and network of golden veins; second quality, creamy ground, golden veins, and also reddish and greenish spots with thicker veins.
- Egyptian Breccia: Also see Egyptian Breccia Marble.
- Egyptian Breccia Marble: Also see Egyptian Breccia Marble.
- encrinal marble: Marble deriving decoration from fossils or shells.
- fiore di persico: A marble of which pieces are found among Roman Imperial remains. There are several minor varieties distinguished by Italian adjectives, such as chiaro (light), rosso (red), etc. It is thought to have been brought from the mainland of Greece.
- Florentine marble: A variety of gypsum; a sulphate of lime more or less translucent and of a prevailing white color, though often clouded and veined with brownish red and other tints…
- French Grand Antique: A marble composed of large and small black-and-white fragments, producing sharp contrasts.
- Georgia marble: A group name for sparkling, crystalline varieties with white or light gray grounds, although some – such as Mezzotint and Creole – have heavy black clouding as a distinguishing characteristic. Georgia also produces Etowah Pink, a large-grained marble ranging from old rose to deep pink, with greenish black and greenish gray veinings.
- griotte: A marble of the Pyrenees, dark green or red and purple in color.
- Hauteville: A compact, calcareous marble with fine-grained fossiliferous calcite crystals filling a monotone warm buff ground color.
- Istrian Nuage: An Italian marble of brownish cream or light brown ground color, with clouds of darker shade scattered through the mass. Very small, hairlike veins of yellow, barely perceptible, are also characteristic. The name is merely another way of saying “dark Botticino.”
- jalee: The decorated, pierced marble or stone of India, such as is found notably in the Taj Mahal.
- Languedoc: A compact marble of brilliant red blotched with white, quarried in the Montagne Noire and elsewhere in the Pyrenees.
- Loredo Chiaro: An Italian marble of light coffee ground color, with irregular fragments of reddish brown distributed through the mass and with many glasslike veins.
- lucullite: A variety of black marble used in ancient Roman construction; first brought to Rome from Assan on the Nile River.
- Lumachelle: A shell marble of dark grayish brown ground interspersed with pearl-lined-shells. The best known product comes from the Tyrol.
- Lunel Uni: One of the many varieties of “Notre Dame” marbles quarried in northern France. Luel Uni Clair is brownish gray with occasional small fossils and is streaked with very fine grayish white calcite veins. Lunel Uni Fonce has like characteristics but larger and more numerous fossils on a much darker brown.
- lychnites: Another name for Parian marble.
- marble: Pressed and heated (metamorphized) limestone, pressed for extra eons to a harder, finer texture. It can be polished to bring out its striations; it its purest form it is without veins, as in the Pentelic marble of the Parthenon or Carrara marble from Italy.
- Maryland Verde Antique: A serpentine that ranks high as a beautiful green marble. It is a mottled light and dark grass-green with interlocking veins of lighter green.
- Nero Antico: A black marble of ancient Greece.
- Nero-Antico: A black marble of ancient Greece.
- Numidian marble: This is found, not in Numidia proper, but in the Mountain of the Capes, in the provinces of Africa and Mauritania in Algeria. The colors range through shades of yellow, drab, and pink to deep red.
- Parian marble: White, granular, saccharoidal marble from the Island of Paros in the Aegean Sea, much used by the ancients for statuary as well as building.
- pavonazetto: Same as Pavonazetto marble.
- Pavonazetto marble: Same as Pavonazetto marble.
- pavonazzeto: A marble, used by the ancient Romans, characterized by very irregular veins of dark red with bluish and yellowish tints.
- pavonazzo: A marble, used by the ancient Romans, characterized by very irregular veins of dark red with bluish and yellowish tints.
- Pentellic marble: A white to grayish crystalline marble from Mount Pentelicus, between Athens and Marathon in Greece. It was used in the Parthenon.
- phengites: A white, yellow-veined marble capable of receiving a very high polish. From Cappadocia.
- Phyrigian marble: Also see pavonazzo.
- Purbeck marble: A dark blue-green stone marked by gray fossils.
- Pyrenesse Black-and-White: A dark brownish black marble from France, with thin and broad golden veins in haphazard pattern. The veins are glasslike, and the entire mass is crazed with very fine cobweb-like veins. A marble of wide variation but consistent in color value.
- red antique porphyry: Same as rosso antico.
- Renfrew: A British fossiliferous marble, dark gray verging on black, with bright red and white veins.
- Rojo Alicante: A Spanish marble of considerable variation in ground color – light to dark red – and with irregular splotches of red-buff and red rather evenly distributed, with white lightning-like veining.
- Roman Breche: An Italian brecciated marble containing large and small fragments of grayish blue and white, more or less outlined with golden red veins. It more nearly approaches a blue aspect than does any other marble.
- Rosso Antico: An Italian marble, deep red with white and black markings. 2. A felsitic=-base eruptive rock used by the ancient Egyptians for statues.
- Rouge Jascolin: An Italian marble having bold swirling masses of mixed red, cream, and rose.
- Sarrancolin: A breccia marble quarried near Sarrancolin in the French Pyrenees. The colors are widely variable, with gray, yellow, and red predominating.
- Synadicum marble: Also see pavonazzo.
- Tenessee marble: A group name for a great variety of marbles of excellent quality. Ground tones vary from light warm gray and shades of pink and brownish pink to dark chocolate. All Tennessee marbles have more or less of a characteristic pinkish hue, although there are a black, a reddish green, and a buff marble as well. Traces of the marine animals whose remains were the raw materials of which it was made can often be discerned. Some varieties are: Antique Rose, Bond Pink, Bond Dark Cedar, Edward Pink, Craig Pink, Ellis Pink, Ross Pink, Acme Pink, Lawson Gray, Champion Pink, d’Or Fossile, Phantasia Rose, Phantasia Vert, Rochelle, and Imperial Black.
- verd antique: A boldly veined or mottled serpentine stone for decorative use; the verde antico of early Italian, Greek, or Egyptian origin was predominantly green.
- verdantique: A boldly veined or mottled serpentine stone for decorative use; the verde antico of early Italian, Greek, or Egyptian origin was predominantly green.
- verdantique marble: A boldly veined or mottled serpentine stone for decorative use; the verde antico of early Italian, Greek, or Egyptian origin was predominantly green.
- verde antico: A boldly veined or mottled serpentine stone for decorative use; the verde antico of early Italian, Greek, or Egyptian origin was predominantly green.
- Verdona: An Italian marble having a general over-all tinge of green, like a copper patina, with splotches of buff showing through.
- Vermont marble: Group name for a wide variety quarried in Vermont, many of them white or with a ground of white, although there may be considerable veining and clouding. Some are practically pure white. Vermont produces a very fine variety of verd antique, which, though classed as a marble, is a rock constituted largely of serpentine. Of many richly colorful Vermont marbles suitable for highly decorative work, a few are Best Light Cloud, Florence, Jasper, Light Vein, Metawee, Neshobe Gray, Oriental, Radio Black, Striped Brocadillo, Vermont Pavonazzo, Westland Cippolino, and Westland Green Veined Cream.
material / stone / metamorphic
- gneiss: Crystalline rock with a tendency to cleave in slabs.
- hornblende: A mineral containing iron, silicate of magnesium, calcium, and aluminum; black or greenish black in color.
- lapis lazuli: A hard, tough, and compact rock of a rich azure blue color, mottled with gray, and with a vitreous luster. Of a very complex chemical nature. Occurs in granular limestone and syenitic rocks, but only in small masses, and is quite expensive. Commercial sources, Persia, Siberia, and China.
- metamorphic rock: A class of rock that has undergone a change in structure, texture or composition due to natural agencies, as heat and pressure, especially when the rock becomes harder and more crystalline.
- schist: Laminations of rock, the product of hot geology, as a napoleon or baklava has layers of pastry.
- serpentine: A mineral or rock consisting of hydrous magnesium silicate, usually green in color and having a mottled appearance. 2. Anything that is serpentlike in its undulating form. Stone called serpentine has such striations.
- slate: A dense, fine-grained metamorphic rock formed by the compression of various sediments, as clay or shale, having good cleavage along parallel lines.
- soapstone: A soft stone having a soapy feeling, composed largely of foliated talc, or steatite, and used in making sinks, stationary, washtubs, etc.
- vermiculite: A hydrated magnesium-aluminum-iron silicate which is a micaceous material that exfoliates when heated, splitting into thin laminae, and with further heating into long wormlike pieces. The exfoliated material is used to fill insulation, in place of sand in gypsum plaster, and as an aggregate in light-weight concrete and acoustical plaster.
- biotite: Brown or dark green mica, a magnesium iron silicate.
- mica: Family name for a class of silicates affording thin, tough laminations of variable translucency; formerly used widely for electrical insulation.
- muscovite: White or potash mica.
- bedding plane: The surface that separates one stratum or layer of stratified rock from another.
- cleavage plane: A relatively smooth surface along which certain rocks will tend to split.
- plain field stone: Uncut boulders or large stones used in their natural form for fences, crude walls, and so on. Such stonework usually involves the use of large amounts of mortar to fill in gaps left between adjoining stones.
- quarry: A natural deposit of stone. 2. A square paving tile. See also quadrel. 3. A small diamond-shaped or square sheet of glass for leaded work.
- quarry stone: A natural deposit of stone.
- river rock: Stone found in and along streams and rivers that has taken on rounded and organic shapes because of erosion.
- rock: Solid mineral matter, naturally formed by the action of heat or water and occurring in fragments or large masses.
- split field stone: Cut or dressed boulders or large stones used for fences, crude walls, and so on. Such stonework usually involves the use of large amounts of mortar to fill in gaps left between adjoining stones.
- stone: Rock or piece of rock quarried and worked into a specific size and shape for a specific purpose.
- jade: Also see nephrite.
- jadeite: A variety of pyroxene somewhat resembling nephrite, and used for similar purposes.
- nephrite: A hard, jade-like mineral used in pre-historic ornaments and utensils, and more recently in Asia for fine carving.
- calion: Flint nodule, boulder, or pebble. 2. Flint panel in flush-work.
- calyon: Flint or pebble-stone; used in building walls, etc.
- chert: A form of chalcedony; like flint, but found mainly in other rocks.
- Crab Orchard stone: A quartzite, easily lifted in layers, of variegated buffs and grays, quarried in Cumberland County, Tennessee.
- flint: A dense, fine-grained stone; a form of silica; naturally occurs in the form of nodules; usually gray, brown, black, or otherwise dark in color, but nodules and other chunks tend to weather white or light shades from the surface inward. Broken “flints,” as the nodules are called, are used in cobble size, either whole or split (knapped) in mortared walls, especially in England.
- Kingwood stone: Trade name for a hard West Virginia quartzite, medium to coarse in grain and varying from antique yellow and light buff to a rather purplish buff; ground mass is white quartz, and color is caused by innumerable brown spots of completely iodized iron; used for heavy masonry.
- quartz: Crystalline silica. A hard, brittle mineral breaking with a glasslike fracture, and usually transparent to translucent, and colorless, or of a white, pink, and amethystine hue.
- quartzite: A compact, granular metamorphic rock consisting essentially of quartz, derived from sandstone.
- silex: Flint or flintstone. 2. By extension, any kind of hard stone cut into polygonal blocks.
- Adirondack sandstone: Also see Malone sandstone.
- Alberene: Trade name for a dense and massive soapstone, blue-gray in color, quarried in Virginia.
- Amherst sandstone: A light gray or light buff, or variegated stone, quarried in Lorain County, Ohio.
- Aquia Creek stone: A light gray and buff cretaceous sandstone quarried in Stafford County, Va.
- berea grit: Berea sandstone; a fine-grained, light-colored sandstone from the Berea grit (Waverly) formations in Ohio. Much used for building.
- Berea sandstone: A fine-grain Ohio sandstone, quarried at Amherst, Ohio, of very light buff, gray, or mixtures of gray and buff; evenly bedded, even texture, easily carved. There is also a Berea Spiderweb, gray with irregular, streaked brownish lines.
- Boise sandstone: Trade name for an Idaho sandstone of medium grain, varying from light gray and buff to darker tones, often with brown and purple veinings.
- Briar Hill sandstone: An Ohio stone with decided variegations in the marking of its general buff color, blending from a golden buff to mottled and banded markings of deeper shades.
- Buckeye sandstone: A siliceous sandstone of Ohio that is available in several varieties which are uniform in texture and possess unusual enduring qualities: B. Gray, B. Buff, B. Golden Vein, B. Mahogany, B. Spiderweb.
- Colusa sandstone: A blue-gray stone of very even grain, quarried in Colusa County, Calif.
- Dorchester stone: An olive gray carboniferous sandstone, from Shepody Mountain, New Brunswick.
- Dunville stone: Very fine-grain light buff sandstone, soft when first quarried but hardening on exposure; susceptible to finest carving; much used in interior work.
- Elwood sandstone: A light buff and dark buff stone of western Pennsylvania.
- firestone: Any stone thought to be peculiarly fit to resist great heat. Such a material occasionally used in England is described as having a large quantity of silica, and is apparently a sandstone capable of resisting even the direct effects of flame under ordinary circumstances, as in connection with an open fireplace. In the U.S., some varieties of Western sandstone, generally of light brown color, are found unusually resistant.
- Gray Canyon: A fine-grain Ohio sandstone of light blue-gray, even in texture and resistant to fire.
- Green County sandstone: A light gray Pennsylvania stone, massive-bedded, of even grain, soft, and easily worked when freshly quarried.
- Longmeadow sandstone: A stone of fine and even grain, in dark reddish brown, quarried at East Longmeadow, Massachusetts.
- Malon sandstone: Also see Potsdam sandstone, Adirondack sandstone.
- Malone sandstone: Also see Malone sandstone.
- McDermott sandstone: An even bedded sandstone with a medium fine grain, in buff and blue colors; easy to work and carve.
- Medina sandstone : A sedimentary rock formed by the consolidation and compaction of sand and held together by a natural cement, such as silica. From Medina, a town in western New York. Quarries are no longer operational.
- Nunda blue sandstone: A sedimentary rock formed by the consolidation and compaction of sand and held together by a natural cement, such as silica. From Nund, a town south of Geneseo, about 60 miles from Buffalo.
- pictou stone: An olive-gray, fine-grained, carboniferous sandstone from Pictou Harbour, Nova Scotia.
- pietra serena: Dark, slippery, greenish-grey Florentine Macigno stone from Fiesole used for the interior pilasters, entablatures, and architectural elements by Brunelleschi at the Pazzi Chapel and Michelangelo in the Medici Chapel, both in Florence.
- Potsdam sandstone: Also see Malone sandstone.
- Pueblo sandstone: A fine-grain, soft gray, white- and gray-veined stone quarried along Turkey Creek, Colorado.
- sandstone : A sedimentary rock consisting of sand, usually quartz, cemented together by various substances, as silica, clay, or calcium carbonate.
- sarsen: A sandstone boulder found on chalk downs.
- verte island stone: A hard red sandstone from Verte Island, Lake Superior.
- Wakeman Buff: A sandstone of fine grain and light buff color showing many faint variations commonly called “spider web”; quarried at Wakeman, Ohio.
- Waller stone: A sandstone similar in color and texture to McDermott sandstone, quarried in Scioto County, Ohio.
- Wilkerson sandstone: A medium-grain, hard, light gray, easily worked sandstone; quarried in Pierce County, Washington.
- Wyoming Valley stone: A fine-gran, compact, hard sandstone of gray-red, gray-green, or blue-gray; used for trim, paving, etc.
material / stone / sedimentary
- egg stone: A limestone composed of small, round, calcareous grains resembling fish roe. Also called egg stone.
- geode: Piece of rock having a druse, or cavity lined with crystals, or a rounded hollow ironstone nodule used e.g. in rock-rash facings.
- ironstone: Stone containing iron-ore, which influences color.
- laterite: Red, porous, ferruginous (i.e. containing iron) rock, found in India and parts of South East Asia. It is easy to cut when first excavated, but soon becomes extremely hard on exposure to air. It was used in blocks for walls, with no mortar, but surfaces had to be clad with softer stone or plastered as it was too hard to carve.
- Lockport dolomite : A magnesium-rich sedimentary rock resembling limestone; a white or light-colored material; from Lockport, a city about 15 miles northeast of Buffalo.
- Mexican onyx: A travertine.
- sedimentary rock: A class of rock formed by the deposition of sediment, as limestone, sandstone or shale.
- shale: A sedimentary rock, formed from clay or silt that readily splits into layers; used as a roofing material because of its fire resistance and durability.
- chalcedony: In general, the ordinary white, gray to black, greenish, bluish, brown, and red varieties of cryptocrystalline silica. The name jasper is applied to the more pronounced brown, yellow, and red varieties, one form grading into the other without distinct lines of demarcation.
- jasper: In general, the ordinary white, gray to black, greenish, bluish, brown, and red varieties of cryptocrystalline silica. The name jasper is applied to the more pronounced brown, yellow, and red varieties, one form grading into the other without distinct lines of demarcation.
- capellaccio: A local tufa stone used for construction in ancient Rome.
- taph stone: Also see taph stone, tufa.
- topha: Also see taph stone, tufa.
- tufa: A building stone, of consolidated volcanic material, having a cellular texture, easily cut by bronze tools; used by the ancient Romans, especially for opus quadratum. Volcanic tufa forms the various hills on which Rome stands.
- volcanic stone: Stone which has been formed by volcanic agency, including lava, peperino, pumice, tufa, tufo, etc.
- albani stone: A pepper-colored stone used in buildings in ancient Rome before the introduction of marble.
- amygdaloid: A volcanic rock lava, containing almond-shaped cavities filled with secondary minerals. Example, the Brighton amygdaloid, near Boston.
- dolerite: A coarsely crystalline form of basalt or diabase.
- lava: Any volcanic rock which has been poured out on the surface of the earth rather than injected in the form of dikes and bosses…
- obsidian: A hard, dark-colored, glassy, volcanic rock.
- santorin: A lightweight, gray, volcanic tuff; used as pozzolan.
- terras: Also see trass.
- touch: Black basalt or basanite, capable of being carved, used for fonts and tombs, e.g. the Tournai fonts of Hants. 2. Compact dark-colored stone, such as Petworth or Purbeck marble, capable of taking a high polish, used for Gothic shafts, tombs, etc.
- trachyte: Volcanic rock consisting mostly of sanidine felspar.
- trass: A natural pozzolan of volcanic origin.
Also see Architecture index.