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The original meaning of the term handstone was used for a piece of ore that was extraordinary in its size or shape and which was intended to be appreciated whilst held in the hand and usually served as a gift from a miner to the owner of a mine. During the course of the sixteenth century, outstanding pieces of ore were artistically modified and adorned with other materials and goldwork. The first handstones manufactured in this way appear to have originated in Sankt Joachimsthal (present day Jáchimov) in the Bohemian Ore Mountains.
The present handstone stands on a gilt base. The lower half forms a mining scene, while the upper half contains a Crucifixion scene cut from a pure piece of silver ore, with a kneeling miner in adoration. On the reverse side of the silver ore Christ's resurrection is portrayed. This handstone unifies the artificially assembled lower section and the upper section of natural, but esthetically modified ore. It can be attributed to Caspar Ulrich, a Bohemian goldsmith from Sankt Joachimsthal, in the area of which silver was found at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
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