A Particularly large Regency campana Urn in blue John, standing on a black ashford  marble plinth base

Blue John (also known as Derbyshire Spar) is a semi-precious gemstone with distinctive bands of purple, blue and gold. It is extremely rare and is found only in the Blue John Cavern and Treak Cliff Cavern at Castleton in Derbyshire, UK.  It was first discovered by the Romans over two thousand years ago.

 It should be noted that this piece is in exceeptional condition, with no breaks or major repairs.

To find any Blue John piece in this condittion is remarkable, and a great survival story.

During  the late 18^th Century and early Regency period, Blue John was in high demand and extremely fashionable and  was shaped to create a variety of classical  ornamental items including objects such as campana urns.

Handling and creating objects from blue john required great skill, and only a few people had the equipment and infrastructure to assemble these pieces, creating a large hollow for example was technically extremely difficult.

James Shore of Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, was one known  maker and designer who created a number of  superb pieces.  They were constructed with a superb sense of proportion, and used  the distinctive bull beef veins. His work was  also finished and assembled in a very similar fashion to the present urn.

Thomas Hope & Matthew Boulton were two other designers and bussinessmen that saw the stunning beauty in this mineral and ommissioned other magnificent pieces.