Frosterley Marble slab (with fossils)

Item Description

Stunning sharp sections of finely detailed horn corals and brachiopod hash are dramatically scattered on the black limestone plate. This is a dramatic, classic and desirable polished and lacquered slab of famous Frosterley Marble from the well-known area of Weardale, County Durham, England. It is a black, bituminous, fossiliferous limestone, not a true metamorphic marble. The fossils are Mississippian in age, about 325 MYA. It was highly desirable as an ornate stone for church decoration during the Middle Ages. The columns in the Durham Cathedral date to about 1350 (Wikipedia). Excellent, highly representative example of the famous decorative stone. Old material, and interesting as it comes from near the famous green fluorite discoveries here. From the collection of Tim Sherburn, who collected this locality and enjoyed having a piece of this old classic rock to go with his old classic minerals.