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from the TUCSON and MUNICH shows
TUC10-346 - Papagoite and Copper included in Quartz - SOLD Messina Mine, Limpopo, Transvaal, South Africa small cabinet, 7.0 x 3.7 x 2.6 cm
Usually, papagoite is dispersed in veils, but in this piece it is extremely concentrated in richness and in color saturation, right at the tip! This is a phenomenal crystal with unusually vivid coloration. The termination is sharp and complete, unusually pristine. Note also the slight wisps of copper inside, dispersed in the zone of deep blue papagoite. A classic, unique to this locality, such crystals are highly desirable in this quality. Papagoite is much rarer, here, than the ajoite inclusions. MUCH better in person, this is one of the sharpest such examples that I expect to be able to offer. It is from new finds in late 2009.
TUC10-347 - Ajoite included in Quartz (phantom) - SOLD Messina Mine, Limpopo, Transvaal, South Africa small cabinet, 6.9 x 3.4 x 2.5 cm
This is a razor-sharp crystal with a termination so sharp you can literally cut yourself on it. The quartz hosts an internal phantom generation of quartz, that is richly included by powder blue ajoite. Now, often the inclusions are dispersed in the quartz , but seldom do you see a phantom within, concentrating the color as this one does. The crystal is complete all around, and shows extraordinary clarity looking through to the phantom zone within. I have seen literally hundreds of these, and in this size range, few have stood out to me as starkly as this piece, which I saw at the Munich show with a direct source. Moreover, it is complete and sharp, and shows off the inclusions without need of polishing. It really is one of the sharpest and finest in its size class. After cleaning, we found that it is technically a floater - rough at the bottom, but microcrystallized and complete.
TUC10-348 - Papagoite and Ajoite included in Quartz - AUS$ 984 SOLD Messina Mine, Limpopo, Transvaal, South Africa miniature, 5.2 x 5.2 x 3.2 cm
This unusual specimen has BOTH rare blue species included within it, AND is a floater cluster of quartz, as a bonus. Clusters in good condition are not so common, and usually they are bigger anyhow. Most small pieces from here are singles - the mine likes to grow its quartz big. Only rarely do you get both minerals included within the same piece, and here you have it in both of the conjoined quartzes. The papagoite is the darker blue, and ajoite the lighter blue. Both are present at the edge boundary of an unusual, internal phantom in the upright crystal. The quartz cluster broke away from its matrix in geologic time an drehealed on the bottom, thus making this a floater, complete all around. Remarkably, it is pristine.
TUC10-349 - Epidote (gem crystal) - AUS$ 2132 Val Varaita, Cuneo, Piemont, Italy miniature, 4.7 x 2.5 x 1.4 cm
Here is an extraordinarily GEMMY, completely transparent epidote crystal, from this classic district. The specimen has classic olive-green color; perfect , textbook form and terminations; and is pristine.Personally, I MUCH prefer the Italian epidotes of such clarity and gemminess to the darker, slender, and generally opaque-looking Knappenwald pieces that go for so much more money. This piece needs no backlighting. It is not just gemmy, but quite literally transparent as glass. And, it�s a rare cluster - all combining to make for a superb competition-quality miniature specimen of unusual calibre. The small sparkly white crystals accenting the lower termination in the cluster are microxls of albite. I found this at the Munich 09 show, and it comes with two older European labels.
TUC10-35 - Langite - AUS$ 328 Mountain Mine, Allihies, Beara Peninsula, Co. Cork, Ireland miniature, 3.4 x 2.9 x 0.7 cm
A showy and excellent specimen of sparkly, rich teal-blue langite microcrystals on matrix from Ireland! Langite is a copper sulfate, rare overall, and known at its prettiest from this classic locale. This miniature is sparkling, like blue sugar, and is a very appealing example of the species
TUC10-350 - Mimetite with Vanadinite - AUS$ 1640 SOLD Chah Milleh Mine, Anarak District, Esfahan Province, Iran small cabinet, 7.0 x 5.0 x 4.6 cm
THE PHOTOS DO NOT DO THIS JUSTICE. In person, it GLOWS with color: This is a gorgeous, sparkling , 3-dimensional specimen with the brightest mimetite you can imagine. It has lustre that is just fake-looking, and a subtle shift of colors from yellow to burnt orange within the same specimen. It is obviously an interesting locale, but more than that it is a very pretty, unique, lead minerals specimen that stands on its own no matter where it is from. It looks like no mimetite I can think of from any other place, and will stand out in a case! On very close inspection, one realizes that some of the more orangey crystals are actually small hexagonal plates: vanadinite. ex UPMC - University of Paris collection, exchanged out to French dealer Alain Martaud some time ago. I have never seen another, myself.
TUC10-351 - Chamosite with Emerald - AUS$ 437 Hupei Mine (Qinjiafang Mine), Pingjiang Co., Yueyang Prefecture, Hunan Province, China small cabinet, 7.7 x 6.1 x 4.4 cm
A highly unusual specimen featuring mediocre but colorful emerald, which serves as the background for superb, sharp crystals of chamosite, the iron analogue of clinochlore. The sharpest crystal here is a doubly-terminated , razor-sharp crystal measuring 1.7 cm across. I had not seen these before from this productive emerald locality and was suspicious when first shown this piece as an "axinite" which generally would not occur with emerald. The identity was confirmed by RAMAN and XRAY analysis in the lab of Dr Robert Downs at University of Arizona. I think this is a quite good example of the species, and one wonders how many such crystals have been thrown away as rubbish in the mad search for crumpled green emeralds!
TUC10-352 - Quartz on Quartz - AUS$ 492 SOLD Diamantina, Minas Gerais, Brazil small cabinet, 6.8 x 4.9 x 2.4 cm
This is a natural jewel! A 3.25-cm-across, doubly-terminated quartz is just floating on the surface of this lustrous, reflective quartz shard - the whole thing a floater! It is "just quartz " on quartz, at som elevel. But on another level, it’s a very special and unique piece that really captured my attention. ex Franz Saller collection
TUC10-353 - Papagoite included in Quartz (phantom) - AUS$ 929 SOLD Messina Mine, Limpopo, Transvaal, South Africa small cabinet, 6.1 x 3.4 x 2.3 cm
This is a razor-sharp crystal with a termination so sharp you can literally cut yourself on it. The quartz hosts an internal phantom generation of quartz, that is richly included by deep blue papagoite. Now, often the inclusions are dispersed in the quartz , but seldom do you see a phantom within. Here, the phantom somehow concentrated the papagoite, so that the papagoite marks the entire right edge of the original phantom crystal inside. The crystal is complete all around, and shows extraordinary clarity looking through to the phantom zone within. I have seen literally hundreds of these, and in this size range, few have stood out to me as starkly as this piece, which I saw at the Munich show with a direct source (these few i offer here all apparently came from the same pocket, as they are similar in size and unusual sharpness and transparency). Moreover, it is complete and sharp, and shows off the inclusions without need of polishing.
TUC10-354 - Danburite - AUS$ 1476 Momeik, Mogok, Burma miniature, 4.5 x 3.4 x 3.3 cm
A bizarre, squarish crystal of DANBURITE, believe it or not. A few small examples of this material came out in 2007-2008, and were sold as scapolite at first. I recall a few fine thumbnails, and some facet rough, with several dealers. They sold for very high prices, actually. But I had not seen such a fat crystal at that time. This turned up at the Munich show, and has now been confirmed by analysis at CalTech in the lab of Dr. George Rossman. I have not seen others at Munich or Tucson, or from my own direct sources, and so I can only presume this is the same older material, and not a new find. An interesting addition to any Afghani/Pakistani suite of specimens!
TUC10-355 - Kesterite - AUS$ 1968 Huya village, Mt Xuebaoding, Pingwu Co., Mianyang Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China miniature, 3.5 x 3.0 x 2.4 cm
This is a VERY robust, large, exceptional example of the species, way beyond the norm in size and sharpness. The crystal is complete all around, and seems to be twinned. We have all seen a huge number of small kesterites, often clustered like grapes on matrix, but isolated large crystals such as this are very uncommonly mined. This single locality has produced the world's best of this rare species by several orders of magnitude.
TUC10-356 - Fluorite - AUS$ 2623 Massif de l'Aiguille Verte, Chamonix, Haute Savoie, France miniature, 4.5 x 3.5 x 2.4 cm
This specimen is from the new pocket found in 2007 at these Alpine heights, is INTENSE color for a pink fluorite, almost red. These pieces have been priced at, and sold, for big money - the reason being obvious in person when you compare the color saturation and gemminess/transparency on one from this pocket, to previous finds or the general "Chamonix pink" style. This pocket will stand on its own merits, as one of the great Alpine finds, I believe. Pink or red fluorite is always pricey, but in context, for the quality compared to the norm, these are worth it in my opinion. This particular piece looks like it should be worth far more..it has two SHARP and totally transparent, gemmy octohedra to 3.2 cm on edge, side by side. A small bit of adularia matrix is attached at the bottom. From the front, it looks pristine and dramatically 3-dimensional. The reason it is more reasonably priced than the piece above (#338) is simply because the back here is incomplete. The crystals pulled off from the matrix, leaving a contact face and a small bit of broken fluorite at the upper-right "shoulder" behind the rightmost octohedron. The lower-right photo is shot purposefully looking down a little bit, to accentuate the view to the back of the piece and in fact show the piece at its worst angle. From head-on, all you see is actually the two razor-sharp , gemmy octos and their equally sharp, upwards-thrusting points with a small hillock in between. It is a dramatic piece that displays well and conveys all the color an dtransparency that will make this pocket a classic to remember, without quite the full price that the miners are selling all-around octohedra for.
TUC10-357 - Rhodochrosite on Manganite - AUS$ 4154 N'Chwaning I Mine, Kuruman, Kalahari manganese fields, Northern Cape Province, South Africa small cabinet, 6.4 x 4.2 x 2.5 cm ex. Lawrence Conklin
This style of rhodochrosite came out in the early 1980s and is often referred to as "wheatsheaves". The color can truly be called "cherry red." Here is a relatively large, rolling plate of the gemmy, transparent to translucent crystals on manganese matrix. The lustre is so brilliant in person, it is hard to convey in photos....but it is like glass, in real life. These are beautiful and truly unique rhodochrosite formations, not found anywhere else, and have always gone for a premium since day one. Today, such specimens, especially in this size, are hard to come by on the open market. Although there are a few small dings, this is very nearly pristine on its display face and for the size, an uncommon find. This is one of those original specimens, long in the private collection of dealer Lawrence Conklin.
TUC10-358 - Rhodochrosite - AUS$ 2623 Hotazel Mine, Kalahari manganese fields, Northern Cape Province, South Africa small cabinet, 5.8 x 4.1 x 3.0 cm ex. Desmond Sacco
This rhodochrosite forms a 3-dimensional, velvety, translucent, thick mass of jelly-like color around an opaque pink rhodochrosite core. It is botryoidal at first glance, but actually it IS crystallized, just with crystals in such a flattened habit that they blend together seamlessly at first glance...rather, more like flows together. It is a very unusual style, characteristic of early find shere prior to 1980 and the major finds of other habits at the nearby NChwaning mines. The lustre on this is difficult to describe or convey in photos. Silky and shimmering are two adjectives that come close. ex. Desmond Sacco collection (whose family controls the mines and manganese deposits there) . This is a distinctly darker red color than most South African rhodo, more maroon than pure red.
TUC10-359 - Tourmaline - AUS$ 13992 SOLD Pech, Nuristan, Afghanistan cabinet, 12.3 x 9.9 x 8.3 cm
This beautiful matrix tourmaline has no repairs and is from a special pocket we clal "electric purples" for the wild glowing color it takes, when backlit, across its termination. The color is a real purple , more evident in person, and not just a typical indicolite blue shade of color. Purple is Much more rare! At about a kilo in size, you can tell from that alone it is a large crystal - most of the mass here. The crystal is nearly fist-sized, 8 x 8 x 7 cm. It sits snugly against crystallized, very 3-dimensional, bladed cleavelandites, with a small sidecar tourmaline for accent. The termination is remarkably smooth to the touch, and has a matte finish. Except for the tiniest wear, the crystal is complete all around and is as close to pristine as you can ask for in a tourmaline of such size and exposure. In person, the color is more robust and the gemmy portion more broad than the photos show. These photos were taken with only minimal backlighting - with strong light, it glows.
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