Imperial Bronze.

Imperial Bronze is the darkest stone in the marble and limestone range, and it is bought for contrast: a bronze-brown ground with darker figuring that turns almost metallic when polished. Against cream Galala or a pale Sunny it does what a dark stone should — it gives the light stone something to be light against.

Use it in measured amounts. A whole floor of it swallows a room's light; a reception desk face, a lift lobby wall, a bar front, a stair riser or a border set into a pale floor is where it earns its keep.

It shares the Milly sheet — 0.26 % absorption, 20,200 psi in compression — so it is an interior stone. Dark polished marble also shows dust, water spots and scratching more readily than pale stone: honed hides wear better if the surface will be touched daily.

Supplied as blocks, slabs and cut to size.