Red Griotte

Maison & Maison allows you to design your own artistic mantel in Red Griotte marble. The "Comtesse de Mailly", Louis XV style model, is particularly spectacular in this type of marble. Our mantels are fully customized through your freedom in the choice of marble.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Red Griotte marble was widely used for royal buildings. In the most important French palaces today you can admire mantels in this marble. The Red Griotte marble and bronze mantel in the cabinet of Louis XV in Versailles, is a very good example of this. There remain two similar mantels in the Palais de Fontainebleau, the first in the Council Chamber, the second in the Salon de l'Abdication. The latter is very much like a mantel in the Louvre garnished with gilded bronze.


Red Griotte marble is one of the most famous marbles from the French Pyrenees. The main quarries are in the region of Felines-Minervois and Caunes-Minervois to the north-east of Carcassonne. Started by Claude-Felix Tarle, they have been widely exploited since the seventeenth century, thanks to the decree of Louis XIV in 1692, in which they became "royal quarries". Red Griotte was used in addition to other marbles for the decoration of palaces and churches built by Louis XIV, such as the Palace of Versailles. In the eighteenth century, Red Griotte marble was sold under the inappropriate name of "Griotte from Italy."

Red Griotte marble was also extracted in other locations such as Sost near Mauleon-Barousse, the quarry of Coumiac in Cessenon-sur-Orb and in Spain near Lezo and Renteria. This marble has been widely exported, particularly to the United States. 
This marble has a deep red color associated with nodules - fossils of  goniatites shells filled with calcite - called "partridge eyes ". This marble was used for the production of numerous fireplaces, table tops and interior decoration elements.

Today, the quarry is still open, operated by an Italian company.