$$$$ marble counter tops

What is the question? How much? A lot. Calcatta (not calcutta) is probably the most expensive marble, and high on the list of expensive countertops. A good quality slab (on the order of 5' x 9') can easily cost $10K, before cutting, edging, installation.

MARBLE COUNTER TOPS seem so 2001.

Who installs marble countertops? Granite and quartz are what you use. Marble belongs on the floor.

It is a very nice marble. Never thought of it for a kitchen. Maybe Calcatta Grey. But the slabs do vary a lot. My Saarinen dining table has a Calcatta gold top which has some green and red in it with grey and gold--sounds odd but it is pretty spectacular. The Calcatta gold in the bathroom, though, is while & grey with just gold streaks. Wouldn't even know the table and bathroom were the same marble if they were next to one another.

Large slabs of many marbles will be a fortune. Ever try to price a 5'x9' slab of teak marble? You ain't getting that on sale.

yes.. the question is how much per slab.. or by square foot..

Those light-colored veined marbles look great in a counter. For now. It still looks expensive, if the slab is thick enough, but the way with these things is that it'll become passe the way laminates and granite have.

Pricing on natural stone depends on the three-dimensional size of the piece, not on total volume. E.g., double the slab thickness and the price much more than doubles.

To get an answer to your question you'll have to dig around with multiple vendors.

I'm sure you can find a man-made version that looks just the same and costs a tiny fraction. Try Kaiserstone and Silestone.

manufactured composites do not look "exactly the same." they have their own benefits (I own a Ceasarstone countertop that I love), but they do look like something else. I went for a type that looks like it's own type of stone--not an imitation of something; it is essentially smooth gray. The misty carrera from Ceasarstone, for example, is very nice but no one is going to mistake it for white marble.

"it'll become passe"? Yes, in the past 500 or so years that marble has been used for kitchen workplaces it has become very passe.

Part of the reason for the great variance in marble colors is that lots of people call various chinese, indian, greek and south american marble by traditional italian names, particularly carrara. In fact, virtually all of the marble you actually see now that is from carrara mines does not look like what most people think of when saying carrera, the stone is very gray. Statuary marble is closer to what people usually think of when saying carrara. There also are several iterations of calcatta (gold ("oro"), extra), that, as KW noted, have different tints to the veining. The green and red tints in the gold veining is "Calcatta Gold Extra," and even more expensive.

And, yes, I spent a very long time looking at marble countertops and tiles.

nyc_sport: that would explain in part why that table was a fortune compared to the knock-offs at Room and Board which just didn't look right to me.