bab07
Babingtonite on Prehnite
Hongquizhen Quarry, Meigu Co., Liangshan, Sichuan Province, China
Cabinet, 11.9 x 9.2 x 6.0 cm
$1,800.00 Payment Plan Available
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This specimen clearly extended into a vug because the matrix of thick translucent prehnite is crystallized all the way around except for a small basal contact on the left side (if displayed horizontally) or the bottom (if displayed vertically). The display side has excellent quality, translucent, botryoidal green prehnite upon which are emplaced tabular, lustrous, black crystals of babingtonite, to 2 cm in length. About a dozen of them! All the crystals are terminated, complete all around, and really 3-dimensional in person. The back side is covered in a druse of sparkling, colorless quartz crystals with no babingtonite - as if all the crystals ran away to go to the top face. luster on these crystals is medium level for the locale, and the faces are all sharp and un-etched or discolored as with some babingtonite from this locality. These remarkable specimens, where even the mid-range material is better than the best of species EVER seen from anywhere else, come out of a very small, previously insignificant quarry that, according to Mindat.org, is simply worked by the local farmers. This is a large and showy specimen at, I think, a fair price for the size and quality.