I'm being moderated so it takes a while for my posts to appear.
I confess I have no idea whether the stones are quarried and cut into those shapes or not. This seems more likely.
However, I have read otherwise. As my piece is in storage I haven't looked at it recently to determine one way or another. However, I will say it does seem too perfectly spherical for it to be entirely uncut.
Here's the item.
http://militaryantiques.files.wordpr...3/dsc00751.jpg