Amber?

[gieserguy]

This was in a collection of decorative eggs from my grandfather. 

What do you guys think of it, is it genuine?

 

 

[gieserguy]

There are two bees in it, presumably honeybees by their back legs. 

[caldigger]

There's a lot of crazing and inclusion mumbo- jumbo you dont normally see in fakes.  I would say this is a real piece of Amber or copal.

[daves64]

I think it's genuine, yes. Generally, with fakes, the inclusions are placed mostly in the center & "posed" rather unnaturally. And they usually don't have other stuff in them. That looks like a good sized piece of either Baltic or Dominican amber by the clarity. Very nice! Do you know where he got it?

[Mark Kmiecik]

Was your grandfather Polish? If so, it's probably Baltic amber.

[Praefectus]

That's a nice piece with some size to it.  Cool.

[RyanDye]

Incredible piece, quite large as well.

[suchomimus20]

it looks like a nice piece of amber there

[gieserguy]

23 hours ago, caldigger said:

There's a lot of crazing and inclusion mumbo- jumbo you dont normally see in fakes.  I would say this is a real piece of Amber or copal.

Oh stellar, that's fantastic news! I had convinced myself it was fake for same reason.

 

 

 

[gieserguy]

23 hours ago, daves64 said:

I think it's genuine, yes. Generally, with fakes, the inclusions are placed mostly in the center & "posed" rather unnaturally. And they usually don't have other stuff in them. That looks like a good sized piece of either Baltic or Dominican amber by the clarity. Very nice! Do you know where he got it?

Awesome, thank you! Unfortunately I’m not sure where he got it, it was just another egg in the basket. 

 

[gieserguy]

21 hours ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

Was your grandfather Polish? If so, it's probably Baltic amber.

So technically, he was my step-grandfather, and unfortunately we don’t actually know his heritage. 

I don’t know much about name history, but his last name was Curl if that helps. 

[Mark Kmiecik]

50 minutes ago, gieserguy said:

So technically, he was my step-grandfather, and unfortunately we don’t actually know his heritage. 

I don’t know much about name history, but his last name was Curl if that helps. 

Not Polish -- I thought that may have been a possibility as very many people in the Chicago area are of Polish origin, myself included. The north of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and the Russian exclave in that area are where 80% of the world's amber comes from. Many immigrants from that area brought it with them to the Chicago area.

[gieserguy]

3 hours ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

Not Polish -- I thought that may have been a possibility as very many people in the Chicago area are of Polish origin, myself included. The north of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and the Russian exclave in that area are where 80% of the world's amber comes from. Many immigrants from that area brought it with them to the Chicago area.

Oh wow, I didn't know that much amber came from there! Very interesting!