What is "verd antique"

Verd antique \Verd` an*tique"\ [F. vert antique a kind of marble; verd, vert, green + antique ancient: cf. It. verde antico.] (Min.)

1. A mottled-green serpentine marble.

2. A green porphyry called oriental verd antique.

n. 1 (context mineralogy English) A mottled green serpentine marble. 2 (context mineralogy English) A kind of green porphyry.

n. a dark green impure marble [syn: verde antique]

Verd antique (obsolete French, from Italian, verde antico, "ancient green"), or verde antique, is a serpentinite breccia popular since ancient times as a decorative facing stone. It is a dark, dull green, white-mottled (or white-veined) serpentine, mixed with calcite, dolomite, or magnesite, which takes a high polish. It is sometimes classed, erroneously, as a variety of marble ("serpentine marble", " Connemara marble", "Moriah stone", etc.). It has also been called and marketed as "ophicalcite" or "ophite".

Non- brecciated varieties of a very similar serpentinite, sometimes also called "verd antique", have been quarried at Victorville, California; Cardiff, Maryland; and Rochester in Addison County, Vermont.