Marble Wall Sconce – Brown Italian Marble with Glass Shade

A wall sconce with its backplate and body in brown Italian marble, carrying a glass shade. Mounting stone on a wall is a different proposition from standing it on a table: the weight is held entirely by the fixing rather than by gravity, and the marble becomes something seen edge-on and from below rather than something looked down upon from above.

Brown Italian marble is quarried, so the veining belongs to the particular block it was cut from and will not repeat between two sconces. Paired with glass, the two materials divide the work cleanly — marble is opaque and holds the fixture to the wall, glass is transparent and lets the light out. A glass shade throws a harder-edged light than fabric would, which on a wall is usually the point, since sconces are more often there to wash a surface than to light a whole room.

It belongs in a hallway, beside a mirror, or flanking a bed where nightstand space has run out. Being stone, it wants a wall that can take a proper fixing rather than a thin partition.

• Body: Brown Italian marble
• Shade: Glass
• Mounting: Wall-mounted
• Form: Wall sconce