A marble urn is a vase-shaped vessel carved from marble, usually with a rounded body, a spreading foot and often a pair of handles, made for decorative display in a garden, conservatory, hall or on a chimneypiece. Most are purely ornamental, inspired by the funerary and ritual urns of ancient Greece and Rome.
The form became fashionable in Britain during the eighteenth century, when the Grand Tour and the Neoclassical taste encouraged landowners to furnish their houses and landscape gardens with urns copied from antique models, many carved in Italy from white Carrara marble. Typical decoration includes gadrooning, acanthus leaves, fluting, swags, masks and the Campana or Medici shapes based on famous classical examples. Smaller urns in coloured marbles were made for libraries and drawing rooms, sometimes with gilt-bronze mounts. Collectors look for crisp carving, good proportions and an even, untouched weathering on outdoor pieces, which should show a soft patina rather than harsh cleaning. Losses to handles and rims, old repairs and later bases are common and should be noted. In contemporary interiors a pair of marble urns on pedestals still lends symmetry and classical authority to an entrance, terrace or long gallery.
