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Barnebys HQ
Brahegatan 10
BOX 5038
114 37 Stockholm
All auctions / Ethnographical / 126 g pink rhodonite skull – Rosenstein
The cloth merchant Antoni van Leeuwenhoek from Delft ground tiny lenses in the 17th century and looked where no one had looked before. In 1676 he reported to the Royal Society in London that in a single drop of water there swarmed countless “little creatures.” The scholars doubted it until they looked through themselves. An entire world had been there all along, right before their eyes. It had only been waiting for the exact gaze. So this skull also reveals itself. At first glance it is a warm, deep pink. If you approach closer, you discover an almost obsessively detailed surface: about a millimeter deep, a fine-grained, light-refracting semi-transparency opens, threaded with golden-shimmering particles and tiny formations. Everywhere lie deep colors and novelties, yet all of it truly wants to be seen and discovered. Rhodonite is a manganese silicate. The manganese gives it its rose-red color, named after the Greek “rhodon,” rose. How precious the stone was is shown by the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg: the sarcophagus of Empress Maria Alexandrovna was made from Ural rhodonite, and the stone-cutters worked about 17 years on it. Material: Rhodonite – Manganese silicate Origin: Brazil Dimensions: 5.1 x 3.9 x 3.3 cm Weight: 126 g Special features: About millimeter-deep, fine-grained semi-transparency on the surface with gold-shimmering particles; deep pink with fine dark markings
Estimate:£5.91
Sold for:-
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Hammer price:
-
Estimate:
£5.91
Shanka-Siegel und kleine Flasche, Himalaya-Region, frühes 20. Jh. (2).
10/16/2026
OCT 23 | 8:00 AM
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Est: £84.49
OCT 27 | 4:00 PM
