1.45 kg Blue Aventurine Male Alien – Murano

In 1291, the Republic of Venice banished its glassmakers to the island of Murano, fearing their furnaces might set the wooden city on fire. There they lived like nobles in a golden cage. They were allowed to wear swords, were shielded from state prosecution, and their daughters could wed into the wealthiest families of Venice. Only one thing was forbidden: to leave the Republic. Those who did so and carried the secret of their craft abroad could expect the wrath of the Serenissima." On this island, so the lore goes, a worker one day accidentally dropped copper shavings into the glowing melt. Out came a glass in which countless sparks glittered like stars on a clear night. It was called avventurina, after a ventura, “by chance.” Later the name passed to a stone that naturally sparkles just as much: aventurine. This head, however, leaves nothing to chance. Its elegance grows from class, not from pose: a broad skullcap rises over pronounced brow ridges, beneath which lie large, almond-shaped eyes and a firm chin. Its presence conveys confidence and, at the same time, bestows it, as if the material itself knew what it wanted and took this exact form. Its blue ranges from pale dove blue to deep midnight blue around the temples and eyes. Dark blue veins run like arteries across the forehead and back of the head, a fine white vein crosses the right side of the skull and the back of the head, and where the light highlights it, fine sparks glow. This glitter has its own name: Aventurescence. It forms when tiny, plate-like mineral inclusions in the rock reflect light like little mirrors. Aventurine itself is a quartzite, a dense fabric of countless quartz grains tightly bound together by pressure and heat. Thus this skull bears the name of chance and yet has nothing random about it: it knows who it is. Material: Aventurine (quartzite), blue-dyed by fine-grained mineral inclusions Origin: India Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.6 x 10.4 cm Weight: 1.45 kg Special features: Mankind-appearing alien form with pronounced brow ridges and large, carved almond-shaped eyes; color play from pale dove blue to deep midnight blue, especially around the left temple and left eye; dark blue, vein-like lines across the forehead and back of the head; fine natural white quartz vein along the right side of the skull and the back of the head; delicate glitter (aventurescence) in raking light

Estimate:£0.83

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