Featured Could this be called an antique

My father took a trip around the world in 1933 working as a musician on a cruse ship for the experience. In Rome he collected this from inside the colosseum, not allowed today but acceptable in 1933.

had this since my dad gave it to me when I was little, it’s a piece of the Roma Colosseo, the Colosseum in Rome. I think it was a piece of the floor but kind of a guess to that but it does have some darker staining that has seeped down into the stone no telling what the stain is but one particular liquid comes to mind.

anyway I thought some might find this interesting.

 

Verifying that it is what it is purported to be is the problem.

 

Possibly, but the rock should be identifiable enough to a quarry location and hmmm well at least no doubt in my mind any way he piked this up inside the coliseum himself this is one I’d stake a paycheck on, I have no intention of trying to sell so not an issue… not even sure you could sell it?

 

If you could positively verify it, selling it could be a problem. The Italians might want it back. I guess if you're happy with the attribution, you could call it an antiquity.

 

Ya, obviously to me there is no question but someone else I imagine would want more. In 1933 the coliseum was half excavated there were no restrictions I’ve read visitors could wander the ruins then unlike modern times.

 

I went there and it was so wonderful to visit.

 

I have some stones from the top of mount Masada....
The signs said..... leave everything where it is...take nothing...... but to a 14 year old boy that's like putting a steak in front of a hungry dog..... and leaving the room..

 

There was a family a few years ago I think this was in California, mom, dad and two kids were out for a walk in one of our national parks in the southwest desert environment. During their hike the kids picked up a few rocks and put them in their pockets. When they got back to their car there was BLM ranger waiting for them, it was about the rocks, the family spent the next few hours on detention in the heat of the parking lot while rangers did their investigation, in the end they had to go court and were fined for taking the rocks.

 

When my family visited a European country, my parents got the bright idea to take an ashtray from a restaurant. It was not old, it was made of clay and had the restauarant name scribbled into the clay before it dried. It said also, do not take.
So we leave the restaurant after eating and notice 6 people running after us to get back the ashtray from the restaurant.

Of course my parents did not want to get in trouble so they handed the ashtray to me so I would get in trouble. Oy
I never ran so fast in my life.

 

That sounds and looks like local tufa stone, which is one of the stones used in the building of the Colosseum. Tufa was used for the internal structure, along with concrete and bricks. The outside was clad with travertin. I assume the floors were also travertin, which is harder than tufa.

So it could be from the Colosseum, but as mos said, it will be impossible to prove it is.

Since tufa is the stone of the region, you are bound to find tufa anywhere in Rome.
If you travel around Lazio, the region of Rome, you see tufa rocks everywhere, and many villages are built on high tufa rocks, very pretty.

 

wow, let me say thank you I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all the comments and really great information and I have enjoyed the stories. this little stone a special story with my dad, like all sons I hope we all see our dads as something special and he was. At 18 he was a professional musician trained in the violin he could play any instrument by ear he had perfect pitch he changed carriers to become an architect, he designed hospitals and buildings for IBM, Fairchild, Memorix and others and he was an artist. He was a body builder and with a friend opened a gymnasium in downtown San Francisco, some here might remember the name “Jack Lalanne” he worked out there my dad his trainer. Like this little stone that and his art are things I cherish and would never sell at any price. So, while I agree with everything it would not only be difficult but likely impossible to verify the stone this fact is unimportant in this case.

this is a large piece done as a copper plate etching.

a pen and ink of my mom.

another glamor sketch.

and another etching of an old mining operation.

 

Jack LaLane. My mother used to watch that show with me and we would do some exercises. She did most while I watched.her.

 

Your dad must have been an amazing man, and clearly multi-talented. And your mom was a beauty.

I have no trouble believing that he found it in the Colosseum, and that it was one of the stones used to build the Colosseum. And it is worn smooth, so it has been around for a very long time. But believing it and having proof are two different things.
I hope that being a bit closer to the origin helps.

Something on Italian tufa:
https://blog.stephens.edu/arh101glossary/?glossary=tufa

And the typical Lazio landscape. The village was built on top of a tufa rock and the building stones are all tufa as well, sourced locally:

 

Well, thank you again… Any Jewelry I believe you are amazing too.

 

Thank you.

 

I have some lovely pottery fragments from Pompeii somewhere. It was the 1980s and I picked them out of the gravel in the car park. Wouldn’t find them there today.

 

When we were in Greece in 1987 we watched a young couple get pulled out of the boarding line for the flight home because they had some rocks and a piece of terra cotta that they claimed they bought at a flea market. Apparently, it was verboten to pick up or buy any kind of antiquity at that time. I was in Sicily in December last year. We visited the island of Motya which is privately owned but a huge historic site with ruins from Greeks, Phoenicians, Romans, etc. There are vineyards and you can pick up all kinds of pottery littering the ground and our guide said take anything you want so I brought home a sampling. Nobody fussed at the airport.

 

Very nice! I don’t think people were as protective of many antiquities pre-WWII as in the modern age.

Nice artwork as well. Your father was clearly multi-talented, and it’s great you enjoy all of that.

Decades ago we stayed with friends in Morro Bay, CA who were friends with Jack and Elaine LaLanne, so they took us over to their home for a visit. Jack was probably about 80 then, and so full of energy. He mentioned that body building and fitness were widely considered to be “fringe” activities, and he was one of the people who was instrumental in bringing fitness “mainstream.” Elaine was also important in convincing women that it was okay to be fit and lift weights. Jack opened his first gym in the 1930s.

 

Interesting comments and stories! Thank you all