SiS: QUADRUPLE HEARTED 17" Hubbard Basin Petrified Wood Round - XTRA Thick Slab!

Description

This is one of the most amazing and unusual cuts I've seen in a Hubbard Basin log.  These trees were mostly spruce, and this was a big one with some large branches that have formed big, swirling knots in the wood grain of this ancient fossil gemstone.  The multiple hearts are actually knots from branches that grew out of a single plane (same distance up the trunk) to form what is sometimes called a "whorl".  I can count 6 distinct knots in this slab!  It's one of the most unusual and beautiful pieces I've seen from this or any other petrified forest!  This particular slab is my favorite from this amazing gemmy fossil log and shows the wood grain and shape of the tree far better than most of the scarce logs found in this ancient forest.  It's a rare, extra thick cut from a truly gem grade log of extremely colorful petrified wood and of course we've polished it to a mirror perfect museum grade display specimen!
Easily one of the most unique rounds from this forest you'll come across and at a price that won't ever be beat!
Here's an absolutely gorgeous, flawless petrified wood round from one of the most prized petrified wood deposits ever discovered! If you aren't familiar with the Hubbard Basin petrified wood from Nevada, you should be! It's a very colorful variety, though true collectible pieces from this location are not plentiful. This piece has all of the best colors that these coveted specimens are famous for but is really dominated by the coveted blues in many shades. The characteristic blue, white, red, black and gold along with a lot of other colors appear to have been painted into the stone with the single intention of drawing a gasp from the fossil wood collector on sight!
Besides being beautifully colored, it's also perfectly preserved. The flowing wood grain from this round starts at the heart of the tree and forms massive arcs through every region of this highly colorful wood. The cells are uncommonly well preserved for Hubbard Basin wood with virtually every colorful region showing excellent wood grain preservation right down to the ray cells within the growth rings! The detail in the lighter regions is washed out in the photo (particularly the light blue) but it's easily visible in the actual stone. Hubbard Basin petrified wood is highly prized among fossil and gemstone collectors because of it's uniquely beautiful blue color and gold, red, etc. inclusions. It's also some of the best agatized wood to be found and is sometimes even translucent when cut 3/8" or thinner. Wood is relatively scarce from this region and true collector pieces are very seldom encountered. The qualities that make a piece valuable are color, completeness, shape and fracture free - this piece has them all and several dozen open crystal cavities to boot!
This is a relatively large cross section of petrified wood for this location, but it is still a very nicely sized display piece. Most of the logs in this deposit were larger spruce and other conifers. This round is complete, and nicely sized although most of these specimens were from softer wood species and like their cousins in Cherry Creek (Nevada's other famous deposit) they tended to get "squashed" in the ground forming oblong rounds when cut. This one is a conifer of some variety (probably spruce) and it maintained its shape very well!  A great collector piece.
If you haven't seen our petrified wood specimens before then you've been missing one of the best treasures found on eBay! We work hard to find the best specimens from the most prized locations and then work with our magic to create a world class specimen for your collection. Our shop is unmatched in both the techniques and attention to detail to produce the finest petrified wood specimens available anywhere. Our work stands above that of the commercial vendors simply because we take the time to make each piece something we'd keep in our own collections which means you'll be treated to a lustrous polish that still looks wet to the touch when you see this true collector gem! The piece is quite solid and meant to be handled. A quick squirt of windex will remove fingerprints from the glassy polished surface.
This stone has been professionally cut and polished on a special lap that produces a flat face and a mirror perfect shine. The polish really is liquid perfect - a difference in the quality products Sticks-in-Stones has built its reputation on that others can only aspire to!
It measures about 17 1/4" x 13" wide on the polished face. It's cut about 0.79" thick. Weight is about 9.4 lbs.
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