A PAIR OF SWEDISH SVART BLYBERG PORPHYRY URNS

The valley of lvdalen (Elfdal) and its bordering parishes in Sweden appear to have been the only serious European mining sources for porphyry in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Mining started in the 1780's and the works were acquired by Charles XIV, the first of the Bernadotte Kings of Sweden, with the intention of introducing the splendor of the French Empire style to Sweden. During this time many porphyry objets were distributed throughout Europe as diplomatic presents executed in a variety of types of porphyry. An inventory pepared for the Mining Intendance at Stockholm at the beginning of the 19th century lists at least twenty-two. Two of this variety are properly categorized as granitelle, the remaining twenty are named after the parishes of lvdalen from where they were quarried; Blyberg (in the case of the lot offered here), Dysberg, Bredvad, Orrlok, Klitt, etc., see H. Sundblom and I. Tunander, Porphyre-La Pierre Royale, 1990, p. 2. Porphyry was quarried out of rock as well as extracted from stone in riverbeds. The lvaden works were sold by the Royal Family in 1856 and were destroyed by fire ten years later. Subsequent production was sporadic and limited.