83g Bloodstone Skull – Pontic Cherry

There were no cherry trees in Italy until the victory of General Lucullus over Mithridates of Pontus. So Pliny the Elder reports and notes the year 74 BC: Back then Lucullus brought the fruit from the Black Sea to Rome, and within 120 years it had reached Britain. Lucullus later became famous less for his campaigns and more for his table. When his servant once set him a plain meal because no guests were invited, he is said to have rebuked him: Do you not know that today Lucullus dines with Lucullus? To this day we still call extravagant pleasure lucullan. This skull is such a fruit, deeply ripened. Its juicy, dark cherry-red color, in the gloss of the polish, almost looks moist and is interspersed with bright red sparkles like drops of fresh juice. On the face, light, creamy clouds drift, like a breath of sugar over the dark fruit: mysterious and sweetly sugary at once. Its color is owed to finely distributed hematite in jasper. The light areas are chalcedony, i.e., cryptocrystalline quartz. Material: Setonite (trade name African Bloodstone) – red jasper with chalcedony Origin: South Africa Dimensions: 5.0 x 3.5 x 3.3 cm Weight: 83 g Special features: Deep, cherry-red to burgundy base rock with bright red inclusions; pale, creamy-gray chalcedony clouds in the face area

Estimate:£0.84

View all items fromCatawikiorEthnographical