Matching bottles to raw minerals

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Dear Tom,
   Your info certainly convinces me, and I agree that you would not want to destroy a beautiful object, even for a 100% judgement!
Best,
  Joey

[rpfstoneman]

Tiger’s-Eye Mineral-

Tiger’s-eye is a macrocrystalline quartz in which an asbestos mineral crocidolite has been replaced by quartz while preserving the fibrous structure, resulting in a special silky luster yellow- brown stone with chatoyancy. 
Crocidolite is the asbestiform of riebeckite.  Tiger’s-eye is formed when the quartz takes over and dissolves the crocidolite, leaving the quartz compacted in fibrous form.  During the replacement process, the iron within the crocidolite dissolves and stains the quartz, thereby providing the golden yellow to brown color of the tiger's-eye.  During the pseudomorph transformation process, materials that contain more iron oxide result in brownish tiger's eye; less oxidation and less iron tends toward the original blue color of crocidolite creating hawk’s-eye.
 
When polished, the mineral’s silky luster creates a beautiful chatoyant effect of moving layers of yellow and brown lines and waves. This effect is caused by parallel intergrowth of quartz crystals and altered amphibole fibers that mostly turned into limonite.

The chatoyant semiprecious gemstone in its yellow-brown form is tiger’s-eye, while the blue form is called hawk’s-eye and the red form is known as dragon’s-eye.

Tiger's-eye can be found in many locations around the world. The chief source of tiger's-eye is South Africa, from the Northern Cape Province.  Other, less important sources include Namibia, Australia, India, and Thailand.  Although uncommon worldwide, the abundance of the deposits in South Africa are extensive enough to make tiger's-eye very affordable.

As a snuff bottle material it is considered a relatively late comer to the snuff bottle world, where most, if not all snuff bottle production occurs from the late 19th through the 20th century. 

The Bottle- Has a carved motif of a crane perched on a rock beneath a pine tree.  The motif is the same on both sides in a juxtapose image of each other.  The carver was able to use the outer weather (oxidized) rind of the stone one face of the bottle to simulate bark on the pine tree.   Sides have a detailed carving of lion heads with mouth rings.   The bottle is 5.6 cm without the matching stopper.  The bottle sits upon a raised oval foot ring.

Period: ca. 1880-1950.  Bottle was acquired in the 1970’s.
 
Rebus: The Pine and Crane together often are used to pass along a wish of “enjoyed longevity or may you stay young forever”.

[Pat - 查尚杰]

Charll

Thank you for this informative post.  The bottle is nice with great chatoyancy but I would clearly place it in the second half of 20th century.

[George]

I learned several things that did not know from your post Charll..

One thing I can share from working with tigers eye, is how impossible it is to go through all the stages of abrasives, and polishing and end up with a glossy finish.. The ends of the fibers always show.. It is necessary to apply sealers once finished so as to cover/coat those exposed fiber ends.

I like your bottle very much, and can appreciate the extra effort the lapidary had to go to in order to obtain the glossy finish.. Not to mention that it is really well carved..  This is not an easy mineral to work with..

[Wattana]

Charll,

A nicely carved bottle in this tricky material. And a good piece of the raw material - a great photo.

Thanks for contributing to this thread! I enjoyed reading the geological information. However, I tend to agree with Pat's dating for the bottle itself.

Tom

[Fiveroosters aka clayandbrush]

Thank you Dear Charll and George for the interesting information about this mineral.
Kind regards
Giovanni

[rpfstoneman]

The bottle is nice with great chatoyancy but I would clearly place it in the second half of 20th century.

Pat,

You could be right about the dating.  This bottle could have been also been made anytime from 1950 to the 1970's when it was purchase.  It was purchased from an antique dealer in Portland, Oregon, and I'm just reporting the time frame provided which seem to fit the range.  The reality of it is that there are a number of folks here that have considerably more knowledge now than what the that dealer would have had at the time.

This is one of a few bottles acquired early in my collecting years when I was more into collecting minerals than snuff bottles. 

Charll

[joearp]

Love this bottle regardless of the date.  I have one that I purchased because of the rich luster of the bottle and the way it felt when I held it.  Such an interesting mineral.

 

[Wattana]

It's been three weeks since anything was posted on this thread, so here is the next one...

Smoky quartz is the gray/brown translucent variety of quartz. It ranges in clarity from almost complete transparency to various tones of brownish-gray crystal, including some that appears almost black. The very pale shades are popularly referred to as ‘tea crystal’, a term I personally dislike, as it conjures up images in my mind of a glitzy chandelier-lit Victorian tea salon – absolutely nothing to do with this very attractive mineral. 

Like all other see-through quartz, smoky quartz is a crystalline form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). The smoky colouration is caused by natural irradiation, resulting in traces of aluminum replacing free silicon in the crystal lattice. In normal geological environments this process can only take place at temperatures below 50°C, so the colour appears long after the crystals have formed and slowly cooled inside the earth. It is estimated by geologists to take several million years for a colourless crystal to assume a deep tone.

Interestingly, true smoky quartz will lose its colour when heated to about 200°C, and the colour will appear again when the crystal is irradiated with x- or gamma-rays. Consequently, the mineral can be artificially darkened by irradiation. Apparently a common practice is to artificially irradiate colourless quartz and sell it as smoky quartz. At big rock and gemstone fairs dealers are obliged to clearly label that quartz accordingly, as it's impossible to tell whether the source of the irradiation was natural or not just by looking at the crystals. Needless to say, some less scrupulous dealers don't do that and get away with it. In the USA a lot of agricultural produce gets irradiated with gamma rays as a means of sterilization, and a box of clear quartz just needs to be put on the same conveyor belt as the tomatoes for a couple of runs. Often the dealers overdo it and the crystals turn out suspiciously black!

The quartz crystals shown here are of medium gray tone and very pale gray, have good clarity, with nicely formed prism terminations, and stand 7.0 cm and 7.5 cm high respectively. The dealer from whom they were bought said they came from Mozambique, East Africa. I have no way of verifying if this is so. A colourless crystal (9.0 cm high) has been included in the first two pictures for tonal reference.

The bottles have been posted elsewhere. More information on them may be found here:

http://snuffbottle.smfforfree.com/index.php/topic,1842.msg22833.html#msg22833

[YT]

Dear Tom,

4 flawless smoky quartz, Nice!!  Beautiful examples.

My impression of 'Tea crystal' is that of an old Chinese tea house with people sipping 'GongFu' tea out of Zisha teapots.

Did you store your chili powder in the quartz bottle shown in your last pic 1108?
The palm design carved spoon has a ring, is that bone too?

Thank you for sharing.

Cheers,
YT

[Wattana]

Dear YT,

Thanks for your compliments.

Chili powder...?!? What you see is Hedges 'Blend L.260' Snuff - one of London's finest! Only the REAL THING goes into my snuff bottles. 

The palm spoon has a free 'bracelet', but I am not sure if it is bone or ivory. Probably bone.

Tom

[YT]

Dear Tom,

LOL!! My bad. I was thinking of chili powder as suitable usage in Thailand.
Hmmm, so you do serve snuff

The bracelet adds a certain touch to the whole bottle.

Cheers,
YT

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Dear Tom,
    Those bottles are all first rate, as I said when I had the privilege of handling them in Bangkok almost 2 months ago. The quartz crystal is wonderful as well.
Best,
  HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!
   Joey

[rpfstoneman]

Tom,

As usual wonderful mineral specimens and bottles to match.  I always appreciate such visuals.   

Charll 

[George]

Interestingly, true smoky quartz will lose its colour when heated to about 200°C, and the colour will appear again when the crystal is irradiated with x- or gamma-rays. Consequently, the mineral can be artificially darkened by irradiation. Apparently a common practice is to artificially irradiate colourless quartz and sell it as smoky quartz. At big rock and gemstone fairs dealers are obliged to clearly label that quartz accordingly, as it's impossible to tell whether the source of the irradiation was natural or not just by looking at the crystals. Needless to say, some less scrupulous dealers don't do that and get away with it. In the USA a lot of agricultural produce gets irradiated with gamma rays as a means of sterilization, and a box of clear quartz just needs to be put on the same conveyor belt as the tomatoes for a couple of runs. Often the dealers overdo it and the crystals turn out suspiciously black!

This information about the irradiation is really interesting.. I did not know this..

As always, a truly detailed and educational posting Tom.. Truly beautiful bottles, and am really enjoying these "matching bottles to raw minerals" postings..

[rpfstoneman]

All,

Here is one of the darker varieties of smoky quartz that Tom mentioned.  Simple dark smoky quartz, well hollowed bottle.  Rhodonite stopper with red glass collar and ivory spoon.  Without stopper the bottle is 6.0 cm tall by 3.3 cm across the wide face.  Raise foot ring base.  It's so dark is that it actually provides a mirror finish.

Charll

[Wattana]

Joey, Charll and George,
     Thanks for your comments.
     
Charll,
     Nice bottle, and a really spectacular smoky quartz crystal cluster! Thanks for posting.
     I have been trying to find a good smoky quartz mineral specimen, but not seen anything even half as good as yours. When it comes to larger quartz crystals, it is mostly the clear colourless variety one sees in SE Asia, which makes me wonder where the Chinese obtained theirs from during the Qing period.
     Do you know where your specimen was mined?

Tom

[OIB]

Tom and Charll,

What an interesting arrangements of bottles and natural stones ! Beutiful to behold.

And the information from Tom on the ' irritable ' smoke quartz ( oops, ' irradiated ' , I mean - and, of course, if we get the artificially enhanced quartz, it can be really irritable  !!  ).

Regards,

Inn Bok

[Wattana]

Thanks Inn Bok,

I certainly hope my smoky quartz bottles are not "irritably irradiated", or I may have to separate "the warts from the quartz".

Happy New Year!
Tom

[George]

"the warts from the quartz".