Black Waterstone from Thuringia Germany
The well-known J.G. Escher Company mined these black Thuringians after WWI, and it seems that they were never branded or exported. At least, I’ve never seen one.
The person who retrieved this stone from Germany has done a lot of research on this topic, and has spoken to many people from many families in the mining region in Thuringia. He shared the history of the Escher Company and these black stones to me. But there is no label and there is no box or stamps.
For me – the word of my source is golden and beyond reproach. But to a collector – the only thing that matters is hard-copy provenance.
As it was explained to me – the Escher Co. quarried these black stones when they first started mining their own stones. Prior to that, Escher bought stones from the mining companies; after WWI though, there were changes in the mining industry and Escher had to go dig their own hole in the ground and the new location yielded some of these mottled black Thuringen stones.
So that’s the story and I’m sticking to it. These black beauties that I have perform equally to the labeled stones I’ve owned; they are harder than most of the lighter labeled Eschers, about on part with the hard Dk Blue stones. A razor finished on this stone feels, to me on my face when I shave, identical to one finished on a typical blue Escher.
Long side is 4.5” / 114 mm
Thickness: 0.6” / 15 mm
Weight: 8.5 oz / 241 g
