French Antique Limestone Slab

A French antique limestone slab with a sharp two-tone character: a top of pale ivory and sides crusted in a deep charcoal and soot-gray patina, so the dark rim frames the light deck like a border. The pale top is the smoother surface, with faint veining and small pits; the dark sides are rougher and more porous. The edges are blunt and irregular, and there are fresh chips where the block has taken a knock in its travels.

It measures 38 3/4 inches wide, 46 inches deep and 8 1/4 inches high. At over 8 inches thick it is a block rather than a paver, a low, wide platform that gives the most top surface for its footprint. The contrast is weather, not paint, and it was as found; the chips and the soot patina were left alone. A block of this mass travels on a pallet.

As a hearth base the bright top reads against the fire, with the dark sides disappearing into the floor. It also works as a wide threshold, as a plinth for garden vessels, or on a plain base as a low stone table. This limestone slab has sold. Similar blocks come through the yard in Marina Del Rey regularly; tell us the size and tone you want and we will send what is current.