Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Antique Victorian Sugar Shaker

Just in today is this glass sugar shaker. Researching images, it has been determined (by the silver top) that it is of the Victorian era.  The bottle itself looks to be molded with a seam running on either side. The shape of the bottle is unique for that period, however I did find a beautiful little watercolor of antique Victorian sugar shakers with this exact bottle shape and top. It stands about 5" tall.  If you know more about this little gem, please feel free to comment below or email us at cgomez@ironstonevineyards.com.  It will be offered for sale after we polish up the lid a bit....


Saturday, November 21, 2015

Winchester Trademark Jewelry comes to Ironstone



Ironstone Heritage Museum unveiled today the only authorized Winchester Trademark Jewelry. 

Designer Chris Chaney has succeeded in producing a great product just in time for the Holidays!

Sterling Silver with bright & colorful czs, the jewelry ranges from $79 to $129 with pendants, post earrings, dangle earrings and for the men in your life, tie tacks, which actually work great on scarves for the ladies as well.

The jewelry is stamped with the Winchester logo and the style of bullet, 9mm, 357, 40 S&W, 45 auto, plus a few more.  These are fun pieces, look great on.

What we like is the fact that even if you aren't familiar with gun styles or much less care, the pendants are attractive enough and subtle enough that anyone can wear these pieces. 

As I am preparing this info for you, some of our customers stopped in on a "Ladies day outing" below and couldn't resist!  After trying on several pair, they settled on the post earrings. After approving this photo, they dashed off to the tasting room to sample wines and show off their new earrings to the Tasting Room crew and Guests.


Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Obsidian Lapidary slabs

We have some beautiful Obsidian just in.  Below is the Wikipedia definition of the material. Obsidian was the most common material used by Native Americans for arrowheads. Using the technique called Napping, the stone was chipped into the shape desired. Being a type of glass, it can be very sharp when worked this way. 

These specimens are nice slabs ready to be used for cabochons, jewelry or just great looking specimen display pieces.

This first image shows just a few of the types we have here...

Silver Sheen Obsidian, very pretty silver shine.

Gold Sheen Obsidian, this piece a Mahogany Obsidian with a gold shimmering undertone

Rainbow Obsidian, with bands of color

Mahogany Lace Obsidian, a see through stone with lacy streaks of black with a few pools of Mahogany color

Mahogany Obsidian, nice rich mahogany and black

Snowflake Obsidian, black with little white snowflakes.


This box depicts some of the different size and shape of the slabs available. All are polished on at least one side, many on both with a few more block shaped polished on all sides. Great display pieces.










    Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed as an extrusive igneous rock. It is produced when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimum crystal growth.

    Obsidian - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsidian

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Petrified Wood lapidary Slabs

These two beauties just came in. Forgive my little camera, it was never made for picking up the detail in pieces like these, so you might either have to come in to see for yourself or take my word for it....
These are spectacular. Rich warm colors, one in browns and reds, the other creams, browns. Both pieces hail originally from Oregon. 
They have come in from a very old collection and in researching, I have not found anything like these two available today.

This first is my favorite. Rich cream colors and an abundance of patterns. There is really so much going on in these two slabs. We are seeing jaspers, agates and so much more.  This specimen is roughly 12" x 10" and between 1" to 1.5" thick.


This is a detail of the above piece. The bright spot is light glare .. but I hope this gives you an idea of the diversity in patterns on this piece.


The second piece is 11" x 8" wide and  1.5" to 2" thick.
Colors here range from Chocolate browns, cream color, reds, oranges and white.




 These are details of the above piece. Again, sorry for the poor photo quality. Come in and see this for yourself. Stunning.










The bright spot on the left is light reflection.










Here is an image showing the thickness of the two pieces.

If you have any questions or are interested in purchasing, just drop us an email or give us a call... cgomez@ironstonevineyards.com
or 209-728-1251