Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Lot 1001

Large Fern Plaque

27 May 2010, 13:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$5,185 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Natural History specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Large Fern Plaque

Alethopteris, Neuropteris, Pecopteris, Sphenophyllum
Pennsylvanian
Llewellyn Formation, St. Claire, Pennsylvania

330 million years ago, these plants died and fell into a marsh, where a low temperature, low oxygen environment allowed the plant tissue to be slowly replaced by pyrite (from sulphides.) Pyrophyllite (aluminum silicate, a whitish mineral) is believed to have replaced the pyrite at a later stage as the sediments deepened and the temperature and pressure increased. This marvelously aesthetic slab displays white ferns which contrast beautifully with the black shale sediment in which they were entombed. Measures 30 x 35in

Additional information

Bid now on these items