This is one of the most odd specimens I ever offered here: Menilite is a greyish-brown form of opal. It is also known as liver opal or "Leberopal" (German), due to its color. It is called menilite because it was first described from Ménilmontant (Paris), France, where it occurs as concretions within bituminous early oligocene menilite shales.
The specimen features strange stalactitic and "flown" forms, like wax which run out from a candle.

Comes with old Alex Franz label where the location is named "Paris basin".
Alexander Franz was born in Göttingen in 1906. He was trained in optics at the Technical School in Jena, receiving his Master's Degree in 1929. He then joined his family's optics business in Hannover, managing it with the help of his brother in his early years, and thereafter by himself.
Franz became interested in minerals at an early age, and built a personal collection which unfortunately was lost during the chaos of the war years. Nevertheless, he built up a substantial new mineral collection following the war.
Franz died in Meerbusch, near Düsseldorf, on October 25, 2000. His collection was purchased by the mineral dealer Christian Rewitzer in Furth im Wald, and the specimens were then sold off individually.