Richard Tipping - Everlasting Stone #20 - Sea Threw

Sea Threw  1979  Blue pearl granite, engraved text, goldleaf. 
Dimensions (approx) 20 x 25 x 6 cm. Collection of the Sackner Archive 
of Visual and Concrete Poetry, Miami. Shown at the solo exhibition Airpoet at Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney, in 1980. Bought by Marvin Sackner circa 1982.
The words are in a 'shadow' font, the goldleaf emphasising the absence of the letters themselves, which are created by their shadows. Blue pearl granite is one of the most beautiful, and highly prized, with its layered reflections like luminous fish scales. Wikipedia says that this granite (an igneous rock) is larkavite, quarried in Norway, "notable for the presence of handsome, thumbnail-sized crystals of feldspar", and is around 300 million years old.