Polish diamond on display in Toruń
Striped flint, a unique stone as hard as a diamond, cannot be found anywhere except in the Sandomierz region. Jewellery with this stone was put on display at the Regional Museum in Toruń in mid-February.
“For years, striped flint was regarded as a ‘weed’ obstructing the extraction of lime. Now, jewelers in Germany and Austria are vying with each other to get hold of it”, says the exhibition’s curator, Katarzyna Kluczwejd. The exhibition is entitled: “Structures, textures, forms of Cezary Łutowicz in striped flint”.
The unique properties of striped flint have been used by Cezary Łutowicz, a Sandomierz goldsmith, for thirty years. He was the first in the world to start producing jewellery with it, and it has now found its way into many Polish museums as well as the Vatican collection.
Apart from Łutowicz’s jewellery, the Toruń exhibition presents natural compositions of this stone, whose shapes arouse connotations with works of art from Paleolithic figures of Venus up to contemporary sculpture.
Striped flint is also called the “stone of optimising”, which refers to the magic meanings which were once upon a time ascribed to the jeweler’s stones and gems. Broken, it shows circles of white, black, gray, beige and brown.
As to its origins, the most popular theory is that it was formed 150 million years ago, as a result of a colony of sea sponges dying out. Striped flint only occurs in Poland in the vicinity of Ożarów, Iłża and Krzemianki in the Sandomierz region.
The exhibition will be on display at the Kamienica pod Gwiazdą in Toruń’s Old Town Market until the end of March.