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Mineral Specimens with Copper
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8.7 x 6.3 x 3.3 cm. Colored red by cuprite and green by malachite, this aesthetic copper specimen is extremely well crystallized. The largest copper crystal measures 4.0 cm in length. But the highlight of this specimen is the incredible, spear-like crystal, exhibiting elongated, possible tetrahexahedral twinning. This is a fine old Michigan specimen. Ex. Richard Hauck Collection.
4.8 x 3.1 x 2.8 cm. According to mindat.com, whitneyite is variety of copper containing up to 11.5% arsenic, with some intimately intergrown algodonite, and not a distinct species. The blue smudge is perhaps azurite. A nice massive sample of the material. Ex. Richard Hauck Collection.
5.9 x 3.8 x 2.0 cm. A nice old specimen from the Michigan copper country. This is a very nice native copper specimen with very well-formed crystals to 1.5cm long. The specimen appears to have modified dodecahedron and spinel-law twinned crystals. These copper specimens from Michigan are old, with most mines having closed prior to 1930’s. Ex. Richard Hauck Collection.
3.2 x 1.2 x 1.1 cm. This is a fine, spinel-twinned copper specimen, exhibiting a wonderful blue-green patina. Ex. Richard Hauck Collection.
18.9 x 15.5 x 8.5 cm. A 3.1 pound, 1.5 kilograms, really well-formed skull with extensions to one side. Quite a nice example. Ex. Richard Hauck Collection.
22.0 x 17.2 x 11.5 cm. A large skull-shaped somewhat like an open football, showing great 3-dimensionality and even (this is rare) rudimentary crystallization at the edges. It is perhaps 70%-75% complete in its form, with the remainder probably just never forming to begin with as the edges here look naturally tapered as they should be. A large and impressive example of this habit. Ex. Richard Hauck Collection.
11.6 x 6.8 x 6.6 cm. An unusual piece, as it is a double skull showing clearly how these form in the cracks and spaces of a conglomerate lode around ball-shaped rocks. Overall, this is thus very 3-dimensional and dramatic. Ex. Richard Hauck Collection.
11.0 x 9.5 x 9.0 cm. An elegant, as these things go, skull that is very thin and dramatic in its curvature, forming a hollow cup inside. Ex. Richard Hauck Collection.
9.9 x 7.5 x 5.5 cm. A rough skull showing copper growth on the inside as well, but still also showing clearly the bowl-shape of the cast. Excellent representative example of the style. Ex. Richard Hauck Collection.
8.0 x 5.6 x 4.1 cm. A beautiful skull in a smaller, collectible size for more people. Skulls of this size, unless they are robust and lucky, seldom survive the mining and extraction process it seems. This one is as elegant as something called a "skull" of massive copper can get. It sits nicely on its own, with a few small natural extensions (where copper filled adjacent veins in the conglomerate lode) acting as props. Ex. Richard Hauck Collection.
11.1 x 9.9 x 7.0 cm. This massive skull weighing in at several pounds is unusual in that it is clearly a skull formed as a cast in a conglomerate lode, but then the inside is filled in by roughly crystallized copper...Very unusual. This makes the piece heavy for its size, as it is more like a solid baseball than a skull with hollow space. Ex. Richard Hauck Collection.
15.3 x 8.0 x 6.8 cm. This is a very fine, large, uncommonly good example of the kind of sculpture made by miners in the late 1800s and early 1900s to while the time away between shifts or on breaks, and in fact the skill of carving these "flowers" with dull metal chisels was a highly refined and competitive art form. I have seen a number over the years of singles. But for somebody to create a group like this without it coming apart, as they chisel the solid copper mass, requires incredible skill. I have not seen better for sale and my friends who know more tell me that this really is one of the best examples surviving. The Seaman Museum has a bigger, but different one. This one is not only good for the number of feathers and size, but also for the fact that it was done in a precise manner to make it as elegant as possible. Usually the chisel carvings are one-directional, not 3-dimensional as this one. Most clusters are only 2-4 feathers. This has NINE good feathers. It’s not made in the ground but it is nevertheless a highly significant Michigan mining artifact that fits in well with a fine mineral collection of coppers. Ex. Richard Hauck Collection.
21.3 x 11.0 x 6.5 cm. Just a really interesting and natural, 3-dimensional piece of float copper. It looks carved, but is not. It is elegant, actually, for what it is, and has a surface polished smooth by natural tumbling in water in the past. Weighs 6.6 pounds (3 kilograms).Ex. Richard Hauck Collection.
24.0 x 21.2 x 9.3 cm. This unusually massive skull weighs in at 12.8 pounds or over 5 kilograms. It is unusually symmetric for such a large cast, and you can imagine Indians mining these and using them as natural bowls. This one is really quite special for the solidity and mass of the cast....usually they are much thinner (and hence large ones are prone to being cracked and ugly, not beautiful like we have here with no cracking and crevasses to mar it. Ex. Richard Hauck Collection.
13.0 x 11.5 x 6.2 cm. This beautiful skull is nearly all complete, except for the hollow end to look in, has excellent form, and was exchanged out of the Cranbrook Institute by the intrepid Neal Yedlin in March of 1975. It’s a great example of this classic copper habit, unique to Michigan. Ex. Richard Hauck, Neal Yedlin, and Cranbrook Institute Collections.
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Rob Lavinsky, rob@irocks.com
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