Lot: 4-1/2" Round Fossil Stoneware - 37 Pieces

These dishes come from the Sahara Desert in Morocco that was a seafloor 450 million year ago. This very hard limestone was laid down over millions of years and is particularly rich in ammonites and Orthoceras. Tremendous labor was required to cut these out of solid rock, grind them to shape, and polished them to a glossy finish. Each dish is 4-1/2" wide and features a goniatite at the top of each one. The case weighs about 17 pounds.

At the wholesale price of $136 for the case, these stoneware plates are $4.00/each. The photos are representative of what the dishes look like.

Goniatites possessed a shell, which is divided internally into chambers filled with gas for buoyancy. An open chamber at the front of the shell provided living space for the animal. The general morphology and habit of goniatites was probably similar to that of their later relatives the ammonites, being free swimming and possessing a head with two well developed eyes and arms.