Editing Alabaster (section)

====England and Wales====
[[File:English - Resurrection - Walters 27308.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|[[Resurrection of Christ]], typical [[Nottingham alabaster]] panel from an altarpiece set, 1450–1490, showing remnants of its painted decoration]]
<!-- This section is linked from [[Henry IV of England]] -->
Gypsum alabaster is a common mineral, which occurs in England in the [[Keuper]] [[marl]]s of the [[English Midlands|Midlands]], especially at [[Chellaston]] in [[Derbyshire]], at Fauld in [[Staffordshire]], and near [[Newark, England|Newark]] in [[Nottinghamshire]]. Deposits at all of these localities have been worked extensively.<ref name="EB1911"/>

In the 14th and 15th centuries the carving into small statues and sets of [[relief]] panels for [[altarpiece]]s was a valuable [[Nottingham Alabaster|local industry in Nottingham]], as well as a major English export. These were usually painted, or partly painted. It was also used for the effigies, often life size, on [[tomb monument]]s, as the typical recumbent position suited the material's lack of strength, and it was cheaper and easier to work than good marble. After the [[English Reformation]] the making of altarpiece sets was discontinued, but funerary monument work in reliefs and statues continued.

In addition to the carvings still in Britain (particularly the [[Nottingham Castle Museum]], [[British Museum]], and [[Victoria and Albert Museum]]), trade in mineral alabaster (other than the antiques trade) is ongoing as far afield as the [[Musée de Cluny]], Spain, and Scandinavia.

Alabaster is also found, in smaller quantity, at [[Watchet]] in [[Somerset]], near [[Penarth]] in [[Glamorganshire]], and elsewhere. In [[Cumbria]] it occurs largely in the New Red rocks, but at a lower geological horizon. The alabaster of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire is found in thick nodular beds or "floors" in spheroidal masses known as "balls" or "bowls" and in smaller lenticular masses termed "cakes". At Chellaston, where the local alabaster is known as "Patrick", it has been worked into ornaments under the name of "Derbyshire spar"―a term more properly applied to [[fluorspar]].<ref name="EB1911"/>

[[File:Willem_van_den_Broecke_-_Sleeping_nymph.jpg|alt=|thumb|Attributed to [[Willem van den Broecke]], [[Rijksmuseum]]]]