verd antique (verdantek)

[OF. verd an tique, F. vert antique, 'ancient green,' = It. verde antico: see vert and antique.] An ornamen tal stone which has long been used and highly prized, having been well known to the ancient Romans. It consists of serpentine, forming a kind of breccia, mingled or interveined with a much lighter material, usually calcite, but sometimes magnesite or steatite, and sometimes a lighter-colored serpentine, the whole forming, when polished, an extremely beautiful material for constructive purposes or for interior decoration. Serpentines of various kinds and of different shades of color were obtained from Italian quarries, and also from those of Greece and Egypt, and were called by various names, according to the region from which they came: thus, verde di Prato, verde di Genova, verde di Pegli, etc. The verde di Prato, quarried near Florence, has been extensively used in various important buildings in that city, as in the cathedral and the campanile of Giotto, as well as in the church of Sta. Maria Novella. Serpentine of the verd-antique type has also been quarried and used in various other regions, as in Cornwall; in the counties of Galway, Donegal, and Sligo in Ireland; in Banffshire, Scotland; and in Vermont and Connecticut in the United States. The objections to its use in outdoor construction are that, as a general rule, it does not stand the weather well, and that it is not easily obtained in large blocks sufficiently free from flaws to justify their use. Also called ophicalcite. The hills of Antioch are part of them of a crumbling stone, like verd antique. Pococke , Description of the East, II. i. 193. verdantly (ver'dant-li), adv . In a verdant manner. (a) Freshly; flourishingly. (b) After the manner of a person green or simple through inexperience. [Colloq.]