Wow...quite a compliment; thank you, Jim. You can rest assured that the stone really is stone! I've been searching the archive of my purchase history from the dealer on e-bay, but can't find the order, as yet, but if I do, I'll post the reference to the stone.
I also have some identical shapes in red/cream stone with a marble-type pattern of speckles and blotches, but I'm not sure what colour of wood to best fit it into. It seems to me that if you get the mix of colours wrong, the finished thing will look cheap and nasty.....not a good selling point!
thanks, Jim.