Sepiolite ("Meerschaum") (ex Kay Robertson Collection)

Item Description

An old specimen of Meerschaum ("sea foam"), in essence a nodule of solid Sepiolite, from Turkey used for carving the famous Meerschaum Pipes and other trinkets.It forms as nodules in red clay, then cleaned and dried and carved. Sepiolite is an uncommon hydrated Mg-silicate. Turkey banned export of the nodules in the 1970s to encourage the growth of home-grown meerschaum pipe carving, but only managed to kill off the European meerschaum pipe carving industry. Turkish specimens of this size are rare today from this ancient locality. Light for its size at 61 grams. Ex Kay Robertson Collection (#1252) with a label from A. Berger of Vienna, Austria. Kay is a prominent California collector, who specialized in European classics (see the article in the March-April, 2007 Mineralogical Record and the 50+ page article in the German Magazine "Mineralien Velt" November-December 2017).