155g Volcano Agate Skull – natural work of art

King Pyrrhus of Epirus, after whom the Pyrrhic victory is named to this day, is said to have owned a very special agate. Pliny the Elder reports that Apollo with the lyre and the nine Muses could be seen in it. No artist had cut them; nature alone had drawn them. Their markings flowed in such a way that each Muse even bore her own sign. This skull is also such a work of art by nature, only it redraws its image with every viewing angle. Joyful summer tones in orange lie over a delicate, mouse-gray ground and grant it an almost innocent zest for life. Everywhere, however, veins run through it: deeply translucent agate bands, rust-red iron oxide lines, and black, curved drawings that lend wild motion to its visage. From no perspective is it ever identical to itself. Agate forms when silicon-dioxide-rich solutions fill hollows and cracks in the rock layer by layer. The different veins tell of solutions that moved through the rock at different times, sometimes clear, sometimes iron-rich. The source region of the material traded as “Volcano Agate” is not uniformly documented in commerce. Material: Volcano Agate – agate/chalcedony (cryptocrystalline quartz) with iron oxide veins Origin: China Dimensions: 6.3 x 4.9 x 4.2 cm Weight: 155 g Features: Orange summer tones on a delicate mouse-gray ground; deeply semi-transparent agate veins, rust-red iron oxide and black veins across the entire skull Note: The blue glow effect in the detail shots does not occur under normal light and could not be reproduced even under UV light.

Estimate:£5.06

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