Complicated

Parian marble is a fine-grained, semi-translucent, pure-white and entirely flawless marble, quarried during the classical era on the Greek island of Paros in the Aegean Sea, from which some of the greatest masterpieces of ancient Greek sculpture were carved, including the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Medici Venus and the Statue of Antinous at Delphi.

The beaches of Paros also abound with a dazzling variety of pebbles of every other kind and colour, an infinitesimal selection of which are shown on the front cover, and at about 3.5× actual size on the inner pages, wetted as if by the waves.