99g Chrysocolla Quartz – Cleopatra's Stone of Moderation...

As Cleopatra VII, in open hostility with her brother and co-regent Ptolemy XIII, a brother war for the throne of Egypt that ultimately led to open combat, she is said to have always carried a chrysocolla with her during negotiations. The Egyptians called the stone the "wise stone" – not because it ended conflict, but because, so the belief says, it urged moderation and thus protected against the injuries born of anger. Exactly this tension between roughness and calming is visibly embedded in this skull. Its surface remains deliberately rough, unpolished, almost earthy – precisely for that it appears alive rather than a lifeless polish. The red lies earthy and heavy, like dried clay over the entire skull, and is repeatedly pierced by green veins that run through it like a calmer, almost life-blood-like counterweight to the dark mass all around – not a wound, but a counterforce. Mineralogically, chrysocolla forms as a hydrated copper silicate in the oxidation zone of copper-bearing deposits; the green veins here traverse a quartz-iron-rich matrix, whose reddish-clay base tone traces back to fine iron oxide inclusions in the host rock. A dark, massive collectible in which earth and balance touch directly. Material: Chrysocolla-Quartz (Chrysocolla in iron-rich quartz matrix) Origin: Russia Weight: 99 g Dimensions: 5.1 x 3.9 x 3.3 cm Special features: Deliberately rough, unpolished surface texture; clay-red base coloration, traversed by strong green chrysocolla veins

Estimate:£0.84

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