scagliola
/skalˈjəʊlə
/noun [mass noun]
Imitation marble or other stone, made of plaster mixed with glue and dyes which is then painted or polished: [as modifier]: scagliola columns...
- The splendid scagliola columns are repaired and polished to their eighteenth-century condition.
- The Egyptian dining room had been painted over, but when stripped it revealed a vast expanse of scagliola (18th-century plaster marbling).
- Neapolitan workshops also produced scagliola, a composition substance that could closely imitate pietre dure decoration.
Origin
Mid 18th century: from Italian scagliuola, diminutive of scaglia 'a scale'.