This is an uncommonly colorful, boldly patterned and extremely well preserved, well agatized petrified araucaria round from Madagascar! This log is very antiquated and shows its ancientness in the rind, but the interior is solid agate that preserved the log perfectly! Many collectors have only seen this variety of petrified wood with the dull and lifeless finishes found on imported specimens, but here you have the opport...unity to admire and study an uncommonly high quality piece that has been properly polished on the display face in our shop. This stone is the perfect medium to see the difference between a collector piece and a more typical commercial offering! That it happens to be a beautiful and well preserved example of our work makes this one a must have. One of the largest and most productive petrified forests on the planet is on the huge island of Madagascar off the southern African coast. While many have seen the bland and lifeless specimens that are most typically found in this huge deposit, few have had the opportunity to see the top grade, colorful gem fossils that are occasionally unearthed there. Fewer still get to see them properly prepared with a mirror finish to reveal all of the rich fossil wood grain and color! Even the rind on this log is amazing, offering up a perfectly contrasting sandy texture that still looks like a log today. Last year we located a new source of logs that have produced some truly museum grade specimens and this stunning monster is definitely one of them! The material was so good in fact that I travelled halfway around the world to be able to select the best pieces this particular forest had to offer! The color alone makes it a collector piece - but add in all the other features in this nearly flawless specimen and you can see why I was so excited to have found the log! They truly do not get much better than this folks, no matter what forest you're looking at! It's just amazing how beautiful petrified wood can be and this fine specimen found halfway around the world shows to what lengths people will go to bring these treasures to market! If you don't own a top grade piece from this increasingly important deposit yet in your own collection, this is your chance. This is a complete round cut from the center of a nice sized log. It shows the distinct (and uncommon to see so well in logs from this location) honeycomb grain structure of modern conifers (no resin canals visible) which makes it related to modern fir and sequoia (it's probably araucaria). This stone has been professionally polished on our own custom built lap that produces a flat face and a mirror perfect shine. It is a full slab cut from the center of the log. The polish really is liquid perfect - a difference in the quality products Sticks-in-Stones has built its reputation on! It measures about 6" in diameter. It's cut about 0.40" thick. Weight is 0.80 lbs. Sticks-in-Stones Lapidary is happily providing UPS & USPS shipping to greatly reduce shipping charges on large rock orders. We will combine auction items or provide additional items from our shop to bring you the greatest possible value in fine Lapidary & stone collectibles!