Jasper Carving, Village (1960s)

Item Description

Here we have a big hefty carving of multi-colored Jasper from Indonesia depicting a beautiful hillside village with accenting rocks and trees carved into the piece. The color of the piece is predominantly a brick red hue, but if you look around, you can see spots of lavender, beige, soft yellowish-green and other shades in between. The piece was completely carved by hand, and my favorite aspect is the tiny detail of the bases of the houses. Just look at those minute yet delicately formed little lines all over. The piece has a gentle polish on all sides and sits beautifully on its own without the need for a base. Like I said, it's hefty, weighing in at 1,316 grams (nearly 3 pounds). Dave acquired this piece several years ago during the Tucson Show, in one of the big white tents along the interstate and the seller told him it was carved in the 1960s. This piece comes from the personal collection of Colorado mining legend, Dave Bergman, the maternal grandfather of Brian Kosnar. Dave is now retired from mining, but he worked for decades in various mines underground in Colorado, as a miner, mechanic, engineer, shift boss and foreman. His biggest claim to fame is that he was the foreman and the primary person in charge of mining and specimen recovery at the Sweet Home Mine in Colorado in the 1970s alongside his son-in-law, Rich Kosnar. This project what was the FIRST ever operation for specimen recovery at this historic locality. A full-page photograph of Dave can be seen mining underground at the Sweet Home in on page 58 of Peter Bancroft's book "Gem and Crystal Treasures".