952 g White Calcite Skull – The Canterville Ghost

In 1887, Oscar Wilde sent an American family into an English haunted castle, and the ghost had no chance. For three centuries, Sir Simon de Canterville haunted the place. He had murdered his wife once, and her brothers had walled him up and left him to starve. Yet the American ambassador Hiram B. Otis’s family did not let themselves be frightened. The son rubbed out the old bloodstain in front of the fireplace with “Pinkertons Champion Stain Remover.” The father offered the spirit a lubricant for his rattling chains, and the twins pelted him with cushions, stretched tripwires, and laid him butter slides. Real blood was hard to come by, so he kept repainting the stain with his daughter’s paintbox until it finally even glowed emerald green. Only Virginia, the fifteen-year-old daughter, pitied him. He told her about the Garden of Death: “Death must be so beautiful... To have no yesterday and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forget life, to have peace.” An old prophecy by the library window promised the house rest if a golden girl offered a prayer for the lips of sin, if the barren almond bore fruit, and if a small child gave away its tears. Virginia cried and prayed for him, and the ghost finally found his peace. She placed a cross of white and pink almond blossoms on his coffin. Later she said that he had shown her what life is, what death means, and why love is stronger than both. This skull is a ghost entirely in keeping with the heart of this story: as white as a sheet in moonlight, yet without any fright. Its surface is lightly rough, like sandstone, and at the same time bears the purity of salt and the nurturing fullness of milk. It is a head that tells more about life than about death. A smoother line encircles it once, dividing it gently into two phases. The left half of the face shines milky and brighter, the right half is more restrained, yet no less expressive, as if haunting and peace inhabited the same form. Its stone is calcite, i.e., calcium carbonate. From the same substance, mollusks and snails build their shells, corals their reefs, and birds the shells of their eggs. It is the building material in which life forms its cradle. A ghost made of this material cannot help but tell of life and of how love is stronger than death. Material: Calcite (calcium carbonate); Trade name “Afghanistan Jade” Origin: Afghanistan Dimensions: 11.0 x 7.1 x 10.0 cm Weight: 952 g Special features: Milky-white calcite with a slightly rough, sandstone-like texture; a smoother band that runs once completely around the skull and divides it into a brighter, milkier left half and a more restrained right half; occasional fine pores and dark specks (natural inclusions); Care: clean only dry or with clear water, as calcite is sensitive to acids

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