A half cylinder of travertine carved with vertical flutes down its face, open at the top and the bottom. Nine centimetres across, 16.5 tall, and the ribs run the full height so the shadow lines change as you walk past it.
Flutes and travertine are an unusual combination because the carving cuts across the natural bedding of the stone. Where a rib crosses a band you get a shift in colour halfway along it, which is something a moulded piece can never fake and the reason to look at this one closely rather than from across the room.
Where it earns its place
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Hallways and staircases. The vertical ribs echo a bannister spindle or a run of panelling without copying either.
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Period properties. Fluting is the one classical detail here, so it sits comfortably with a cornice and a picture rail.
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Entrances. Grazing light down a carved face is more interesting at night than a flat one.
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In a pair, flanking something. A door, a mirror, a chimney breast. The symmetry of the shape asks for it.
Real stone, so no two are the same
Every flute is cut into a different part of the block, so the depth of colour changes from rib to rib, and the open pores break the line of a rib wherever they fall. Two of these next to each other will read as a matched pair from a distance and as two different objects up close.
Fitting it
Hard wired and a job for a qualified electrician. It projects 9 cm from the wall, so check it clears a door swing before you commit to a position beside an opening. In a hall or stairwell, 1.5 to 1.6 m to the centre. Because the ribs are vertical, any lean shows immediately, so level it against the flutes rather than the base.
