Twenty-one pieces, 291 grams in total, priced at $5 per piece.
Agni Manitite from Java, Indonesia — known in the trade as the Pearl of Divine Fire, from the Sanskrit agni mani. Sources disagree on how to classify it: some treat it as a true tektite, formed from material melted and thrown by a meteorite impact, while others classify it as a pseudotektite — a natural volcanic glass produced by eruption rather than impact. Both positions are held by reputable dealers and neither has settled the question. We describe it as it is sold and let buyers weigh the evidence themselves.
The pieces are black to very dark grey, with a dimpled, pitted surface texture and rounded forms that come from natural weathering and water tumbling rather than any shaping. Surfaces range from matte to lightly glossy.
Held to a bright light, nearly every piece in this lot transmits — a warm olive to amber-brown glow that is the standard mark of genuine material and distinguishes it from ordinary black glass. Degree varies from piece to piece: some light up almost throughout, others through a substantial portion of the body. Held in ordinary room light they read as opaque black to very dark grey.
Pieces run roughly 0.5 to 1.5 inches.
This is a natural glass at about 5 to 5.5 on the Mohs scale. It fractures conchoidally and edges can be sharp, so it should not be tumbled or worked without eye protection.
Natural and untreated — no dyeing, coating, or stabilizing, as with everything we carry.
Every lot is filmed before it ships — what you see in the video is the material that arrives.
