Published Piece: Historic Carved Black Opal

Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia
Carved with a minutely detailed snake entwining the base of the stone: this elongated cabochon has predominantly brilliant broad flash reds, as well as green, blues and yellows. A unique and historic stone, it must surely have figured prominently and been exhibited in the Morgan Gem Collection—a notable portion of the Gem and Mineral collection of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. It was pictured in the delicately rendered watercolor frontispiece of The Story of the Gems: A Popular Handbook, by Herbert P. Whitlock, Curator of Minerals and Gems, American Museum of Natural History, published 1940. Weighing approximately 29.23 carats and measuring 38.0 x 15.0 x 8.0 mm

Provenance: Property de-accessioned by the American Museum of Natural History. Please note the watercolor image pictured here, is not included in the lot nor is a copy of the aforementioned book.

Purchased at Bonhams, San Francisco, The Nature of Opals Auction,
10 Nov 2010, sale 19039, lot 111.

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/19039/lot/111/

GLORIA MANNEY

Every curator, dealer and auctioneer who has met Gloria Manney called her "one of a kind" or said, "they don't make 'em like her anymore." She was a voracious collector with a style, intelligence, curiosity, courage and point of view all her own.

Along with her husband, Richard Manney, they researched and collected an amazing array of material culture and built entire markets for objects by aiding scholars in their work, including rare books and 18th and 19th Century fine and decorative arts. Their collections included the greatest assemblages of American portrait miniatures and American colonial goldsmithing, both now at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Their furniture resides at Winterthur, The Met and The Art Institute of Chicago.

But above all the objects in their lives, Opals were Gloria's first and foremost passion from childhood. They were her birthstone, her playthings, and her favorite adornment. No opal passed her by, as she believed every opal needed a home. A magpie by nature, their beauty entranced her. Gloria worked with dealers and auctioneers around the world to find opals. And the opals found her.