Set of 3 Menilite opals on mini-cube
PUMI2512-1
This is three very strange and rather rare natural sculptures: the Menilite Opal. Initially discovered and named in Ménilmontant, Paris. But this group comes from southern Spain: Agramon, near Murcia.
Spanish "menilitas" are found in a field of diatomaceous earth (fossils of marine microorganisms with "glass" skeleton -silica-). The nodules are made of massive opal sometimes light to light-grey caramel, with abundant diatomaceous inclusions (themselves composed of opal), with a chalky white surface of powdery opal, so three "varieties" of opal in a single nodule. The interiors are hard and compact and take a good varnish, and are sometimes used for opaque lapidary work. These three shapes are unique and natural, and can recall sculptures by Miro or other superalists sculptors.
Spanish "menilitas" are found in a field of diatomaceous earth (fossils of marine microorganisms with "glass" skeleton -silica-). The nodules are made of massive opal sometimes light to light-grey caramel, with abundant diatomaceous inclusions (themselves composed of opal), with a chalky white surface of powdery opal, so three "varieties" of opal in a single nodule. The interiors are hard and compact and take a good varnish, and are sometimes used for opaque lapidary work. These three shapes are unique and natural, and can recall sculptures by Miro or other superalists sculptors.
