Large Agate and Amethyst Column Display

Cut and polished section, mined in Greece, cut and polished on one side, probably recycled material mined in ancient Roman times; mounted on a custom-made metal display stand. 9.82 kg total, 44 cm including stand



Acquired on the UK art market since the 1990s. From the private collection of a Somerset gentleman.

Also known as Lapis Lacedaemonius and Porfido Verde Antico, a type of green porphyry quarried in Greece. Spartan basalt is a form of andesite or volcanic rock known today only from a single source in the village of Krokees on the Peloponnese in Greece. In addition, ancient sources mention a quarry of Lapis Lacedaemonius in Taygetus.

A nickel-iron meteorite (IAB). 97.8 grams, 50.7 mm



From a Cambridgeshire, UK, collection.

A crater field of roughly 26 craters was found in the vicinity of this crater, which is estimated to date to 4-5 thousand years BP. The age of the meteorite itself is thought to be c.4.5 billion years, formed as part of the development of this solar system. The largest two fragments, the 30.8-ton Gancedo and 28.8-ton El Chaco, are among the heaviest meteorite masses ever recovered on Earth. In 1576, the governor of a province in Northern Argentina commissioned the military to search for a large mass of iron, which it was believed the local people claimed had fallen from the sky and which they used for their weapon production. The expedition discovered a large mass of metal, which was assumed to be an iron mine, and brought back a few samples, which were described as being of unusual purity. Following the legends, in 1774, Don Bartolomé Francisco de Maguna rediscovered the iron mass. He himself did not believe that the stone had fallen from the sky and assumed that it had formed by a volcanic eruption. However, he sent the samples to the Royal Society of London. In 199,0 it became protected by law.

Composed of small cylindrical beads and of seven coin-shaped feature beads; restrung. 38 grams, 32 cm



Ex London, UK, art market 1990s.