The hand-carved Egyptian porphyry bowl of rounded form, with lip, to a pedestal foot, 2022, signed with artist cypher to the base. Dimensions: 6.72cm high, 14.17cm diameter.

Porphyry is an igneous rock consisting of feldspar crystals embedded in a compact dark red or purple groundmass. Purple-toned Porphyry has been revered since ancient Egypt and was used for centuries to create some of the most impressive statements of earthly riches by Roman Emperors.

Part of the material's allure is that 'Imperial Porphyry' had only one source; a mountain in Egypt, which the Romans called Mons Porphyry. According to Pliny, this source was discovered in 14 AD by Caius Cominius Leugas and brought to the Emperor Tiberius in Rome. Its rarity, purple tone (the Imperial colour) and granite-like toughness, appealed to the Emperor immediately and he decreed that only the Imperial family could make use of it. These early deposits had very fine inclusions rather than larger crystals and the best examples are still visible in the Vatican today but, perhaps most famously, in a large circular tile in the centre of the Pantheon where Emperors stood to be crowned for over 300 years.

Even once ownership of this deposit was lost, and then even the knowledge of where the deposit was became unknown, the allure of porphyry continued with several Holy Roman Emperors being buried in porphyry tombs and even Napoleon Bonaparte seeking to be entombed in the material. The ancient quarry was rediscovered in 1823 and is now a World Heritage site.

Stephen Cox RA is a contemporary sculptor whose most admired work comprises monolithic sculptures inspired by traditional techniques from India, Egypt and Italy in long-revered indigenous materials such as alabaster, Porphyry, and marble. He is the first artist to gain access to the Imperial Porphyry Quarries in the Eastern Mountains of Egypt for many centuries and the work that this legendary material inspired has a timeless almost archeological feel to it.