Smithsonites from the old Kelly Mine are around�name a size and price range, and with a little patience any collector can get a beautiful specimen. However, most pieces are flat, and have no association. This is a gorgeous, 3-dimensional, mounded piece with intense color AND a really unusual association with flower-like rosettes of calcite crystals. It is complete all around and has no damage, just a superlative example. It was purchased shortly after mining by well known book author and collector, John Sinkankas of San Diego. He described it in 1966 as "a very fine specimen of shining botryoids, color rich blue-green," at a time when they were generally available and yet this was special even then. Note on his card, he valued it at triple what he paid, on the day he accessioned it to his card files! The piece stayed with John through the sale of the majority of his collection (possibly thousands of pieces) in the 1980s; and I last saw it in his home in the mid 1990s before he passed away. By then, he had picked up water color painting as a hobby and painted his favorites. I bought a number of remaining pieces from him in the late 1990s but did not have the funds at the time to purchase this piece. It was sold to another dealer, who sold it to Jack Halpern at the first showing of the piece. It remained in Jack's collection in San Francisco until exchanged to me (with some evident agonizing on both sides) in 2009. I have seen so much of this material over the years (25 years of dealing), and so few pieces ever struck me the way this one did both when i first saw it, and still today. It is a sentimental piece that has a lot of meaning to both myself and its previous owners, both gentlemen-collectors of the old style who truly are passionate for their pieces. I can admit i feel a little guilty trading it out of Jack, to tell the truth...but he wanted a REALLY nice rock from me in return, towards it all, and that's how it has to work. Joe Budd photos

A classic coronadite stalactite from old mining at Broken Hill, but unusually with rice-grain smithsonite crystals festooned all over it! From some place called the "Melendy Mineral Museum" on an old yellowed label.

A riveting specimen of the rare, "sugary" style of intense green smithsonite from Tsumeb, produced in a single pocket in the late 1970s or early 1980s. This piece came from a collection purchased in Africa by the Sussmans, solely to get this specimen. There are few that rival it for size, and they are held by major museums or collectors not releasing them. Of the examples I have seen, even including the Houston Museum example and the piece formerly in the noted smithsonite collection of the Zweibels, this one excels because of its aesthetic edges, dramatic 3-D form, and translucency. There is no damage at all - it is perfect despite the large size. Joe Budd photos.