SiS: Petrified Wood Round - DRAMATIC PERFECTION African WOODWORTHIA
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:15551452 |
WOW! This is a particularly choice heel cut specimen with amazing wood grain and spine scars. It comes from one of the best examples of this amazing fossil wood that I have ever cut. Look closely and you'll see that this one is also double hearted!This is one of the larger perfectly shaped and most intricately detailed of the Zimbabwe Woodworthia specimens I've had the pleasure of offering in a couple of years! The growth rings really st...and out in this high contrast specimen, as do the bold rays from a trunk that managed to preserve it's nearly perfectly round shape through almost uncountable eons of time as it petrified. What emerged through the ground and in our own workshop is a true work of natural art, millions of years later! The finely detailed annual rings are pierced by the bold rays to form one of the prettiest and most striking fossil formations you'll ever see in petrified wood. This one has dark, highly agatized wood in a nice combination of natural colors with strong rays and bold rings - it represents some of the gemmiest wood available from this forest. This is the heel end of the log and is thick enough that you can appreciate a lot of the characteristic spine scars on the rind. And just look at those reflections in the mirror polished face! The back of the stone is rough and naturally weathered. One of my all time favorites in a wonderful collector size specimen! This round is from a larger log that still has the stellar rays emanating through the entire round from the spike knots this wood is identified from. In the last couple of years I've started seeing some really fascinating petrified wood coming into the US at the big import shows from Zimbabwe, Africa! The wood is typically green, brown and black and exceptionally well preserved on the exterior. The interior reminds me of a lot of the Utah wood in detail (i.e. it's hit and miss) but the best pieces show beautiful spike knots leading up to the spine bases that coat the exterior logs. You'd recognize these specimens anywhere as the logs are consistently the same colors inside and out, and the exterior is coated with an unmistakable pattern of spine scars. The wood grain itself varies in quality, but the best of these pieces show spike knots in cross section (they look like rays coming from the center of the log) and a good cut will show several of them. This wood is quite unique and really a much more interesting fossil than most of the woodworthia we get here in the US. The green color is something you have to see in person to understand - it's not really comparable to any other petrified wood and it's difficult to get a representative photograph that really does the color justice. The wood has a reasonably high silica content so we're able to coax a nice polish out of the specimen. This is one of the few complete rounds I was able to locate that really took a nice polish. If the timeless mystery of this piece isn't enough for you, then I'm certain the simple, natural, gemmy beauty of it will be. The colors are dark and subtle, and the wood grain is unique to this exotic species. This round is cut from the end of a very solid log. It's really a nice piece, but what else would you expect from a business named "Sticks-in-Stones"?! We've applied all of our considerable lapidary skills to bring out a mirror finish and produce a specimen worthy of display in your own collection. You can also make out some of the spine scars on the edge of the slice. This piece measures about 4 3/4" across the polished face and is cut to a maximum of about 1.15" thick. Weight is 1.14 lbs. Stands sold separately. Sticks-in-Stones Lapidary is happily providing UPS & USPS shipping to greatly reduce shipping charges on large rock orders. We will combine all of your purchases from our shop to bring you the greatest possible value in fine Lapidary & stone collectibles!
