expat

In the mountains at the weekend and stopped at a village to stretch the legs and partake of a beverage. We came across someone who was selling stuff that he had created. We often come across weavers who use local reeds to make baskets and hats etc. This guy was carving rocks that he finds in the river valley. We left him a business card with the offer to display and sell his stuff in our shop which sells only artesania from many countries. We took with us 4 turtles of different color rock for our personal collection of figures. They are about 3in long, 2in wide and 2in high. The first image looks more like a fat seal as the head broke apparently and had to be redone, shortening it in the process

25 minutes ago, Alegandron said:

Mammoth Tusk Carvings

I had bought these in China, carved, from Mammoth tusk imported through the land port Manchulia, China, from Siberia, Russia. Since then, I understand now it is illegal to import Mammoth Tusk, similar to the Elephant Ivory laws. At the time I purchased them and brought them home, Mammoth was not an endangered species (being extinct), therefore there were no problems. Now, it looks like Custom Laws have changed. Like Ivory, existing pieces are grandfathered (as I understand the changes.)


Mammoth Tusk - Russia find China carved Chinese Zodiac BOAR and RABBIT


I am the Boar, my wife's Zodiak is the Rabbit.

Those are lovely and I think you are correct in that already being in possession from before the laws were changed is OK. Just can't sell them on.

@Paddy54nice objets d'art my friend.

Beautiful engraving on this reverse and a stylish obverse

I dug this up from the garden in our mountain home. If someone could narrow down its type I would be grateful. It is 13 in wide,  6 in high and 7 in deep. It weighs just under 10 pounds

42 minutes ago, robinjojo said:

Here, we are entering the world of phosphate minerals.  Phosphate minerals include a very well known one, one whose role played an important one in human civilizations throughout the globe: turquoise.  

We have have here is not turquoise. This is a half nodule of the phosphate cousin of turquoise, variscite.  While turquoise is a phosphate of copper and aluminum, variscite is a phosphate of aluminum.  The nodule contains a complex of phosphates: variscite (blue green areas), crandallite (yellow banded areas), and wardite (the dark gray banded areas and eyes). The nodules occurred in a contact zone where the variscite became altered into these other phosphate minerals, meaning that they were formed at the expense of the variscite.  

The result is that nodules were mined in the 1930s and 1940s at a location known as the Little Green Monster Mine, in Utah.  The nodules varied greatly, with some having large areas of almost emerald green variscite mixed with other phosphates, while others were almost entirely crandallite, or were hollow.  The size of the nodules varied from a couple of centimeters to large nodules of fifteen centimeters or more.  The Little Green Monster Mine has long been closed, but occasional specimens are  found on the mine dumps, although the quality of these finds don't match the beauty of the original mined nodules.  Slabs of complete nodules do come to the market from time to time, but finding a complete, unbroken half nodule is a difficult task to complete.

These nodules are uniquely American.  

Variscite, AlPO4•2H2O

Little Green Monster Mine, Clay Canyon, Fairfield, Utah Co., Utah, United States

Half nodule, 11.5cm x 8.2cm x 4cm,  516.4 grams

From the Charles M Noll Collection

 

Fantastic. First time I have seen one, thanks for sharing

Beauty applies to many in my collection. I am always on the lookout for standard circulating coinage with interesting designs.

The two above look like water snails. Nice finds. We live 100 yards from the beach and walk it every day. We really look forward to the morning after a combination of high tide and a storm. We have found many great pieces that way. Here are two entire specimens, a sea urchin and a seahorse.

Seeing the Nautilus above, this takes pride of place in our shell collection. It was found and we were granted permission for it to be retained by us. I have placed a silver dollar against it so you can judge its size.

8 hours ago, Paddy54 said:

Paddy, that is a great Nautilus. Generally unchanged for about 500 million years. The word nautilus is derived from the Greek word ναυτίλος nautílos "sailor", it originally referred to a type of octopus of the genus Argonauta  also known as 'paper nautilus', which were thought to use two of their arms as sails

4 hours ago, robinjojo said:

Yes, quartz family gemstones (opal, agate, jasper, chert, rock crystal, amethyst, citrine, Prasiolite or green quartz) have been used by humans going back millennia in the form of amulets, rings, Intaglios, seals and other objects for decorative and everyday use.  There's also flint, not a gemstone, but an important mineral in the evolution of early human history.  With a hardness of seven, on the Mohs scale of one to ten (one being talc and ten diamond) it is easy why this material was a favorite of the ancients.

Here's my yellowish green Babylonian frog weight, called "Euphrates", created during the first half of the second millennium BC.  She is comprised of a type of agate known as dentritic agate.  The dark inclusions are manganese crystal growths that formed between the cryptocrystalline quartz crystals, extremely small, and fibrous in nature.  The inclusions have a fan or branch like shapes.

This is a wonderful object that crosses between being an antiquity and an object of mineralogical and lapidary interest.

I acquired this object from Harlan Berk, back in 2017.  It came out of a private American collection, where it was acquired in 1981.

7.3 cm x 4 cm.

 

Lovely frog. We have some carved tortoises very similar. I cant find them so assume they are at our mountain home. Going there next week so will have a look.

2 minutes ago, Paddy54 said:

Our mantel is home to many animals carved from all sorts of materials.

I love the Angel fish and barnacles. 

They are great Paddy. We have about 200 animal figures carved from Jade, Turquoise, Soapstone and other minerals on display in our shop.

The spear shaped "guard" of the Belemnite a squidlike creature. They became extinct during Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, 66 million years ago.

Belemnitella was declared the State fossil of Delaware on 2nd July 1996.

I have 1 au natural and 2 still encased in rock.

13 minutes ago, robinjojo said:

 

Nice agates!

Here's one more that I've owned since 1968, from South Dakota

 

 

 

A real beauty. Agate is just great to look at

Agate is something that fits well on this site. Ornamentally, it was used for the seal stones of Ancient Greek warriors and is part of Minoan history. Before that, to the 3rd Millennium BCE, polished agate was used  as jewellery in the Indus Valley Civilisation.

29 minutes ago, Parthicus said:

I have some cool fossils that I bought, but of course it's much more fun when you find them yourself, so I'll show those instead.  First off is a bunch of shark teeth from a famous site called Big Brook in central New Jersey.  The sharks and other marine fossils found here are from the end of the Cretaceous period (c.66 million years old).  This is a RIker mount display case of just shark teeth from the site (I've also found various fish fossils, a few types of shells, and even a couple of mosasaur teeth (an extinct group of swimming reptiles- think crocodiles with flippers instead of legs).  While these are easily recognizable as sharks, the particular species are all extinct:

Next is a site closer to where I live now, the Calvert Cliffs of the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.  This site is of Miocene age (c. 14 million years old).  Many of the shark teeth and other fossils are from species that still exist.  In the group below, the sharks include the extinct Snaggletooth shark, an extinct Mako relative, and an extinct Tiger, while extant (still-living) species include Tiger, Sand Tiger, Bull, Hammerhead, Six-gill, and Angel sharks.  The bottom rows also include sting ray, drumfish, barracuda, and porpoise.

 

There are no fossils found in or immediately around Baltimore City (no exposures of fossil-bearing rocks), but there are a few minerals around.  My local city park has lots of mica that weathers out after storms.  Here's a few pieces I've found (they are about 2 inches [5 cm] long):

 

An impressive display

55 minutes ago, DonnaML said:

Some kind of crystal. Obviously Ziggy is hypnotized.

What a wonderful image, thanks for sharing that one

One of the most popular items sold in our shop are amonites. Some of them I drill and insert a silver ring. People wear them or attach to their keyrings

1 minute ago, Furryfrog02 said:

Now you're gonna make me go dig through my boxes in the basement to find all my fossils!

Yeah! Join in the fun

These are fossilised sea urchins (echinoidea). Here in Spain they are called Herizos de mar, or, hedgehogs of the sea as urchin is an old world name for hedgehog, taken from old  French herichun  and Latin ericius  both meaning hedgehog.

54 minutes ago, Numisnewbie said:

(please excuse the crappy photos shot on my phone)

This is a pair of fossil ferns from the Llewellen formation in St. Clair, PA (300 million years old). I wouldn't call these especially rare, but the parcel of land in St. Clair where these fossils used to be found everywhere is no longer open to the public. I bought these because I loved the contrast between the white fossils and the black shale. They are each about 10-1/2 inches wide.

They are stunning, like the cameo on a proof coin.

Very nice examples everyone, the trilobites and amonite are great.

A few more, geodes, desert roses and crystal

25 minutes ago, Spaniard said:

Cool fossils!.   I think we both know how lucky we are to live in a country that is abound with fossils...

Here's a few I've stumbled across ...

The top left and sausage shaped pieces are coral which I found 150 km inland !

Some nice pieces there. Where you used to live, Nijar, there is an old dormant volcano that is constantly disgorging garnets. After a rain the ground is covered with them. We collect them in there hundreds and have a deal with a jewellery manufacturer in Germany who purchases those that can be faceted and polished,

Aside from coins, my Wife and I collect these. Some are found in the wild and others are gifts from clients. I will start with a mixture and please post whatever you think relevant.

5 minutes ago, Etcherdude said:

@expat, I’d say that the French coin has a wonderfully dynamic design. 

Agreed, it screamed at me the moment I saw it