Vintage Mid-Century Modern Hand Carved Green Onyx Horse Head Bookends

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Vintage Mid-Century Modern Hand Carved Green Onyx Horse Head Bookends featuring a smooth, polished finish with natural banded stone striations.

… Read more Vintage Mid-Century Modern Hand Carved Green Onyx Horse Head Bookends featuring a smooth, polished finish with natural banded stone striations.

They are crafted from banded green onyx, a cryptocrystalline form of quartz characterized by parallel, variegated layers of color. The bands range from milky translucent cream and white to rich sage greens and hints of rust brown.

Styled similarly to classical chess knights or Trojan horse motifs, they feature geometric, stylized carves along the mane and sharp, angular facets forming the jawline. This look blends elements of Art Deco and Mid-Century Modern design.

While occasionally originating from Italy, the vast majority of these green-banded onyx bookends were carved and exported from Mexico during the 1960s and 1970s.

Because onyx is exceptionally dense and heavy, a standard pair typically weighs between 4 to 8 pounds, making them perfectly suited to support large hardcover books on a shelf.

Because they are carved out of natural, unrepeatable blocks of stone, no two pairs share the exact same pattern of mineral veins. See less