Massive Site Update Part 1 – German, Turkish and Russian Thundereggs

Thundereggs have been accumulating lately – and I have been sitting here miserably lazy! However, I have finally started a massive update and many new stones are now on-line. The first part of this update covers the old world and there are well over 100 new stones that have passed through my hands and a few that have stayed there!

Most exciting perhaps is a new location from Russia, tagged simply as the Ural Mountains. I have very little info beyond that but the stone is a lovely little thing with waterline agate. Almost ‘scenic’ of the grey Russian seas and distant Arctic ice . . .

Ural Mountains Thunderegg

Turkey has also yielded a new bed – one of the many tagged as simply Cubuk. This is a very different stone to anything I have seen before, with a beautiful mottled matrix. It’s a smaller stone than many from here.

Cubuk Area Thunderegg

However, Germany is the main area for updates. Here are a few of the best ones. Several new Spießberg stones are on-line, including this little beauty. I sold this one and I am now thinking I must have been insane to part with it. It has some of the best fortification agate I have ever seen from here and also note that strange horizontal line in the agate, which appears to be a very fine band of clear agate within the white.

Spießberg Thunderegg

Here also is a nice Mönchstal geode. The other half has been on the site for a while but now finally the pair are united. The colours are somewhat paler and subtler than usual from this location.

Mönchstal Thunderegg

A Hohenstein Ernstthal thunderegg next. This is a location that has long frustrated me since most I have seen seem to suffer horrible from cracks and damage. This one though is a pretty nice one with a wonderfully colourful red and green core.

Hohenstein Ernstthal Thunderegg

Not surprisingly it is Nesselhof and Lierbachtal – possibly my two favourite locations (which I have been polishing and selling a lot lately) that are featured most. Both these galleries are now massive, showcasing these very varied stones.

Lierbachtal Thunderegg Geode

The above is a fantastic showcase of how complex these stones can be. There are so many details in this stone that it is hard to know where to start!

Lierbachtal Thunderegg

And this is a very small specimen with a simple but curious core. I am not sure really what is going on in here, save for the sagenite needles.

Moving on to Nesselhof, here is a selection of new stones:

Classic Nesselhof Thunderegg Pair

Nesselhof thunderegg with an unusually well defined core

Nesselhof Thunderegg Pink Agate

This one been in the wars! Battered and fragile to begin with, broken on digging, then shattered again in the post to me. I had to salvage it as best I can. The result is rather sad – like a crippled pet. That agate though is something else, especially in closeup . . .

Nesselhof Thunderegg - Sad Man Dancing

This is one of the great Simulacra, I think! See the little dancing man with the sad eyes? Dancing with his broken heart? I think it is one guy – it is a cut through one rock after all. So this is a stone of Loneliness and woe. I originally planned to sell this one, but when i spotted that, it instantly became a keeper.

Nesselhofs often seem to have a sadness about them, which may merit a special blog post one day . . . .

Look out for updates to US stones fairly soon, including many new locations and some amazing rocks. I will also be adding some beautiful new Esterel stones soon, and I will do a dedicated showcase here for those!