AOUELLOUL GLASS, MAURITANIA

So, here's the story. Aouelloul (Wha-lool) glass is about the most nondescript impactite known. Irghizites and Wabar glass are very distinctive, with beads and drops and cool ropy forms. Darwin can be really nice, although 90% of it is pretty massive. Monturaqui is ugly as sin, but is redeemed by abundant inclusions of meteoritic metal. Libyan Desert is glorious, needing no support from me. Ries-Nordlinger can show great morphology when weathered free of its matrix. But Aouelloul? It's rare, hard to get, and typically about as neat as well-seasoned brown chewing gum stuck beneath a park bench. Got your interest yet?

Stand by for the rest of the story! This year we found a guy who crawled around on his hands and knees through the Aouelloul ejecta train, which is about as rich in scorpions as in impactite fragments! He gathered several kilos of material, which he figures has virtually no chance to recoup his expenses even when sold at top dollar. Like our previous supplier who spent several days in a Mauritanean clinic recovering from heatstroke, this guy also sees no reason to go back! However, we sorted piece by piece through a few thousand specimens, and found twenty or so that actually showed interesting features. Here they are, and I can assure you that they are some of the best Aouelloul glass specimens in the world!

The white patches in the background of the following images are 1.5 inches square (38mm). All of the thumbnail images can be clicked for an enlarged view. Close the resulting window to return to this page.

	7.4 gms.	This one has a neat flap of glass folded over to form a tube! $350 Sold
	4.6 gms.	It's hard to show this one with a single photo, but it is very complex with lots of 3-D relief and irregular features. One of the cleanest I've seen. $50Sold
	4.0 gms	Another tough one to photograph. this piece is honeycombed with deep cells and several full-penetration holes. Very nice! $45
	4.0 gms	A totally stunning twisted ribbon! Very reminiscent of the best Darwin Glass. $100 Sold
	3.8 gms	The right edge of this one is folded to a vertical orientation with a half twist. $40
	3.3 gms	An aesthetically-pleasing piece with a fairly flat base and a triangular cross-section. Displays very nicely. $40
	3.2 gms	A very clean specimen with distinctive morphology which is decently portrayed by the photo. $35
	3.1 gms	This is a thin, fairly flat piece that gives you a lot of visual size for the weight. It has some nice topographic relief and pitting on the upper surface. $34
	2.8 gms	You'd need a revolving hologram to fully appreciate this one! Deep recesses, thin septa, spiraling ramps----scale this up to an artform in a public square and you'd be famous. This is in the "as good as it gets" category. $150 (I feel silly asking this little for it----)
	2.4 gms	Reasonably well shown by the photo, both sides are similar with nice deep pits and delicate walls. $30
	2.2 gms	A cute little nugget with lots of skin features and deep relief. Actually, the chewing gum analogy works pretty good here! $20
	1.8 gms	Drop-dead gorgeous! Shaped a bit like a bent canoe with a deep trough in the left-hand part. There is a hole through the vertical element at the upper left hand part of the photo. More Aouelloul at its best---- $35
	1.5 gms	I think it's a splatted teardrop with a half-twist in the tail!!! Pretty flippin' unique! $450 Sold
	1.4 gms (b)	A twisted, tapering ribbon. Very cool. $20
	1.4 gms (a)	Several deep pits bordered by thin translucent septa make this bit quite distinctive. $15SOLD
	1.1 gms	Very ornate, this cross-shaped sweetie with a slightly angled cross-arm will help you to forget that most Aouelloul is pretty ugly. $15
	0.9 gms	What you see in the picture is pretty much the whole story. The view on either side is the same. $11 (can you believe, given the introductory build-up, that any nice piece of Aouelloul could be priced this cheeeep??)On hold IM 1/05/07
	0.8 gms	A slightly bent, slightly twisted irregular ribbon. Cute piece. $10
	0.7 gms	A corkscrew twist! $8 ($8???I'm kidding, right? Nope----)
	0.7 gms (b)	A tiny high-heeled boot that got run over by a steam-roller. (I did tell you that most Aouelloul is beyond salvation, didn't I? Please grant me a little poetic license---)$8 (the prose is worth that much)
	0.6 gms	So you want the only jumping trout Aouelloul glass tie-tack on earth? You can do it here! You supply the jeweler, I'll supply the rock for only $7. There are WAY more diamonds on earth than Aouelloul glass. You figure. If you want this quoted in karats, let me know.
	0.5 gms	This is really a cute little curl with a hole through it. If you collect little things, this truly is a beauty. We wouldn't have picked it out of a field of thousands if it wasn't! $7Sold

We've got lots and lots of less distinctive (i.e., more typical) Aouelloul that is not shown here. Tell us what you want.

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