- RH18-10
- Rhodochrosite on Quartz and Tetrahedrite
- Sweet Home Mine, Alma, Park County, Colorado, USA
- Small Cabinet, 8.3 x 6.4 x 5.7 cm
- $40,000.00
Nestled aesthetically in a shallow quartz vug are lustrous and translucent rhombs of CHERRY-red rhodochrosite, highlighted by a crystal 2.4 cm across. This is a crystal over one inch of the best color - not rose or strawberry colored, but a real cherry-red. It has a sharp form and has no restoration or repair, as so many in this size do. Small crystals of colorless quartz and sulfides add contrast to the major crystal, which sits so perfectly in its well-trimmed matrix! This is a major Sweet Home rhodo by any standards for a small cabinet specimen, and would date from the tetrahedrite stope mining in this mine, in the late 1990s. Such specimens are simply not available with all the attributes this piece has of aesthetics, condition, color, and luster - most fail in one or more.
- GEM23-15
- Spessartine Garnet on Albite with Schorl
- Little Three Mine, Ramona, Ramona Mining Dist., San Diego Co., California, USA
- Small Cabinet, 6.0 x 4.2 x 3.8 cm
- $45,000.00
This is a significant and classic Little Three Mine Spessartine Garnet, dating to the Louis Spalding Sr. era of mining when the best of these were produced from this small mine in a remote part of San Diego County (late 1960s into the early 1970s). It was then in the collection of Bryant Harris, who almost certainly participated in the mining as well. This is a fantastic specimen of San Diego garnet, super rare compared to spessartine from any other country's finds, as it features the famous combination from the mine: one large, vivid orange crystal on a stark white Albite matrix combined with a single, contrasting black Schorl crystal. The big, 3.3 cm, lustrous and colorful Spessartine is gemmy to translucent and contrasts well with the white Albite matrix and a small, black Schorl Tourmaline crystal. The Spessartine crystal is is placed nicely on the piece to show of its color, dodecahedral crystal form and gemminess.
- SZ22-21
- Pink Fluorite
- Goscheneralp, Goschenen Valley, Uri, Switzerland
- Cabinet, 10.0 x 10.0 x 7.8 cm
- $45,000.00
A single massive and very deeply colored fluorite crystal, of what you could charitably call "unusual size" for the location! However, it is more than just big: The color is incredibly saturated and rich, which is particularly uncommon in crystals of such size here. The color is definitely a more dark red-maroon than the typical pink and pinkish hues we normally associated with both Swiss and French material. In fact, the color is much more intense than Pakistani pink fluorites as well, which do get this size although not with such color, so it has to be among the world's larger examples of the color in this size range. Historically rare, more do turn up time to time (the glaciers recede due to climate change, which actually helps expose new finds every few years, it seems), but again they are generally more pink and of slightly different habit as well. This is an octahedron, of course, but it has interesting surface features that also differentiate it from other modern finds.
- STOUDT-09
- Legrandite
- Ojuela Mine, Mapimi, Durango, Mexico
- Small Cabinet, 6.4 x 4.6 x 3.2 cm
- $46,500.00
Legrandite is the Holy Grail of collecting rare species, for many people. Few large matrix specimens exist to be had, and of them, nearly all are in museums or private collections that are not selling anytime soon, now. This dramatic cluster hangs off the matrix, fully exposed and perched on contrasting gossan matrix. It looks good either side up and sideways, too! The cluster is 3.5 cm across. Individual crystals longwise are to 3 cm.
- D10-02
- Silver (Circa 1800S) Ex. Bally Museum
- Himmelsfurt Mine, Saxony, Germany
- Large Cabinet, 18.0 x 4.0 x 3.0 cm
- Request Price
This majestic large silver specimen is both elegant in form for the collector and significant for its size and impact. Wires of this thickness and size are very rare survivors of the heyday of these famous silver mines, quite visually distinct from recent material that came out around 2000-2002 from a modern find in the old tunnels of the linked mines of this district. It was found in the 1800s and was in the Bally Museum in Switzerland by the early 1900s. With the dissolution of that museum, it then went into the major private collection of Eric Asselborn, and then to Brent Lockhart in 2010. The Munich Show organizers requested to borrow it for their show exhibits in 2013 themed "European Treasures." This silver also won the Best of Theme award for its size class, in 2015 at the TGMS show, for the theme of "Minerals of Western Europe." To win Best Cabinet sized mineral in the year of a theme like that, with so much competition, says something. In 2016, it was exhibited in Lockhart's Desautels-winning case at TGMS. This piece has style, not just size.
- SM20-448
- Rubellite Tourmaline (circa 1900)
- King Mine, Pala, San Diego Co., California, USA
- Small Cabinet, 8.9 x 5.7 x 4.6 cm
This specimen is a nearly pristine, robust King Mine Elbaite Tourmaline crystal that was mined around the turn of the 1900s in the era when the jewelry dealer Tiffany's out of NYC was competing with the last Empress Dowager of China for the world's best supply of pink tourmaline rough material for carving and jewelry. Needless to say, little survived that competition, in the way of specimens. It's the exact top level of carving material once sent to the Empress dowager of China when San Diego was a gem export center for the US in the pre-WWI era, and when the Chinese carving market drove gem mining efforts in San Diego (the legacy is still seen today in the street names as you go down from the mountains along Garnet avenue past Beryl and Quartz and Feldspar etc, to get to the beach). This dignified Elbaite crystal is an intense, translucent pink and doubly terminated! It has a flat (pinacoid) termination on one end and a complex (pyramidal) termination on the other, and is pristine except only for a very minor bit of restoration on the flat termination side. This gorgeous crystal is distinctly striated and tapers slightly inward towards the complex pyramidal end.
- DEN13-960A
- Tourmaline Var. Liddicoatite
- Camp Robin, Fianarantsoa, Madagascar
- Large Cabinet, 21.0 x 7.0 x 7.0 cm
Liddicoatites from this locality represent the classic style for complexly patterned slices, showing the amazingly subtle gradations of color banding that occurs in these chemically-rich tourmalines as one moves up and down their length. This particular crystal is said to be the largest crystal of such quality that has been cut from the modern finds (since mining began again here in the 1990s), according to the man who mined it and in whose collection it resided for about a decade (Dr. Federico Pezzotta). It is expertly cut, with each piece polished superbly to a perfect polish and luster. The patterns and colors of the interior change even from slice to slice, in a graded pattern that could never be guessed at from outside! This piece was found in 2001 and long remained in the personal collection of Madagascan government's geological exploration consultant and collector, Dr.
- JB16-1640
- Tourmaline var. Liddicoatite
- Anjanabonoina pegmatites, Ambohimanambola Commune, Betafo District, Vakinankaratra Region, Antananarivo Province, Madagascar
- Cabinet, 9.0 x 8.0 x 7.3 cm
The photos say it all: Liddicoatite from Madagascar is well known for the magnificent complex multicolored growth patterns, but this is the most spectacular matrix example I have seen of this style. The piece is complete 360 degrees, and perfect (with a few repairs). The matrix is a gorgeous pearlescent lavender colored muscovite, that is hard to convey in photos. It is an exquisite specimen from old mining here, long in the noted gem crystals collection of Dr. Steve Smale. Joe Budd photo.
- GOLD21-16
- Gold
- Pontes e Lacerda, Mato Grosso, Brazil
- Miniature, 4.5 x 3.2 x 1.8 cm
One of my favorite miniature-sized specimens from hundreds I had seen, from this large find a few years ago, we put this away for the future at the time. It is a spreading, volumetric cluster of incredibly sharp gold crystals, with mesmerizing detail throughout. it is complete 360 and simply amazing to look at up close. The photos say it all. At 49.2 grams, it has more volume for display for the collector, than the mass would otherwise indicate, as it spreads out nicely. One of our favorites of the entire lot, from the several kilos of material we had seen when these came out (around 2015).
- SM20-476
- Aquamarine
- Shigar Valley, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
- Cabinet, 10.0 x 8.0 x 4.5 cm
A stunning, 3-dimensional cluster of sky-blue Aquamarine crystals that represents one of the top-tier pieces in its size class, this was a signature exhibition specimen for decades in the Obodda collection as shown at the Tucson, Springfield, and Munich shows (and in a special 2011 museum exhibition in Tucson). This stately Aqua consists of two main crystal columns each at three and a half inches in length and an inch or more across! The bottom half of each crystal is interestingly cloudy resembling an internal "fog" that is sharply demarcated by a horizontal zone above which the crystals are completely gem for the remainder all the way to their perfect terminations! All of the crystals of this sumptuous piece have a luster like glass with exceptionally well-formed crystal faces and sharp edges. The terminations are dominated by the pinacoid with slight pyramidal modifications around the top. A two and a half inch Aqua spans the two diagonally across the base for added effect.
- TANZ01
- Tanzanite cluster
- Merelani Mines, Arusha, Tanzania
- Cabinet, 10.5 x 3.5 x 2.0 cm
Most tanzanite crystals, for whatever reasons of science and geology, form as "singles." A double, especially a cluster as balanced and symmetric as this, is extraordinarily rare in the mineral world. This piece is complete all around, 360 degrees. It is not the most gemmy, although it is translucent, but it has intense color and sharp geometry that draws the eye. As you can see in the photos, it exhibits the traditional famous dichroism of color for tanzanite, blue and purple at alternating 90 degree turns. However, the colors actually merge a little bit here, and you see purple highlights on what would normally be the blue side, and vice versa. Tanzanite crystals are often heated at the source to see if they go to a more uniform and deep blue color for the gem trade.
- SM20-233
- Corundum var. Sapphire
- Ratnapura, Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka
- Small Cabinet, 5.8 x 1.6 x 1.3 cm
Superb and substantial, doubly-terminated, hexagonal, prismatic Sapphire crystal from Sri Lanka. This classic, NATURAL (unheated) Sapphire crystal exhibits its characteristic steely-blue color. This 24g Sapphire crystal is an amazing two and one-quarter inches long and five-eighths of an inch at its widest. Although specimens of this size tend to show rounding of the edges from rolling around in the gem gravels of their host rivers in Sri Lanka, this specimen is very sharp and it has well-defined crystal faces and edges. It's gemmy through much of its length with translucent areas and displays a sublime medium blue color to most of the body, graduating to whitish at the terminations. 24 grams is large for such material.
- SM20-475
- Tourmaline with Albite and Laumontite (illustrated)
- Sosedka Pegmatite, Malkhan Field, Krasnyi Chikoy, Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia
- Cabinet, 10.8 x 3.0 x 2.9 cm
A stately and commanding Tourmaline crystal adorned with contrasting bluish Albite and Laumontite from the Malkhan Pegmatite Field, and one of the special crystals to be noted and recovered in early efforts at the Sosedka pegmatite here (2012). This gorgeous deep cranberry colored Tourmaline is over four inches in length and more than an inch across and is translucent with local gemmy areas, especially at the termination. Its prism faces are distinctly striated and the crystal is doubly terminated on one end by a complex and lustrous modified pyramid and the opposite end by an etched pinacoid. The crystal is graced on one side by pale blue, platy Albite crystals to 1 cm in length as individual crystals and open rosettes. For added interest, Laumontite is also associated with the Albite on this side as a late-stage crystallization product...and yes, Zeolites are found in pegmatites! The Laumontite occurs as densely aggregated, ivory colored bladed crystals to a few millimeters.
- MUN13-1145
- Rhodochrosite With Manganite
- N'Chwaning I Mine, Kuruman, Northern Cape Province, South Africa
- Miniature, 4.9 x 4.3 x 3.4 cm
These treasured red jewels from the late 1970s and early 1980s finds here only turn up in old collections. This is a very balanced, 3-dimensional miniature with superb aesthetics and the best rich, cherry-red color. Unlike most of them which are rather damaged (due to the time they were collected, generally in haste), this has only one small tip missing. Small hematite crystals provide accent. It is, to those who know what they are looking at, just a very sophisticated example of one of the pre-eminent pockets of minerals in modern times. Joe Budd photos.
- HALP-29
- Elbaite Tourmaline
- Santa Rosa Mine, Minas Gerais, Brazil
- Large Cabinet, 16.9 x 5.2 x 3.9 cm
Santa Rosa has produced some of the finest tourmaline crystal specimens in the world, though most of them were destroyed in collecting or cut for gemstones in the heyday of Brazilian gem mining. This large, heavy, multicolored crystal is a rare survivor of those times - probably found in the 1940's according to former owner Dr. Peter Bancroft (see attached letter, written to John Attard when John tried to get the information on behalf of Jack back in 1999 and while Peter was still alive). Despite being huge and thick, it backlights very well, very dramatically, and looks awesome in a showcase. This was brought up by Peter Bancroft on one of his trips in 1971, and kept by him for some years in his own collection before selling it to Jack Halpern (along with another tourmaline in this update). It masses 570 grams!
- HALP-28
- Elbaite Tourmaline
- Manoel Mutuca Mine, Minas Gerais, Brazil
- Large Cabinet, 18.5 x 3.4 x 2.8 cm
This crystal is a stunning historic piece from one of the most famous gem mines of the time, the "Mutuca/Mutuba" indicolite mine, which is still infamous today in gemstone and jewelry circles in Idar-Oberstein and in Brazil for the cut gems of the era. This is a terminated, unrepaired, deep blue indicolite from the old days of Brazilian gem crystal mining, when very little went to collectors and nearly all of it was cut It has no damage, nor any repairs or restorations. It is an unexpected survivor from a time when nearly everything like this was cut into pieces. People in the gem trade that I showed this to, to verify, confirmed the location and suggested a date of mining prior to 1960. This was brought up by Peter Bancroft on one of his trips in 1971, and kept by him for some years in his own collection before selling it to Jack Halpern (along with another tourmaline we're deaccessioning for him). What is amazing about this tourmaline is not only the uniformity of color and the saturation, but that it backlights so easily.
- JB17-1903
- Arsenopyrite
- Panasquiera Mine, Castelo Branco District, Portugal
- Large Cabinet, 21.0 x 12.2 x 4.5 cm
Arsenopyrite is a common mineral in the polymetallic deposits of Panasquiera, though it seldom occurs in rich and large plates. This particular pocket, featuring a natural and frankly startling iridescence to the crystals, came out in 2015 and only a few specimens were available at the time (luckily, I was travelling through Europe at the time and bought several). Why have we not seen these rich colors before or since, in all the history of the mine? I cannot say, why this piece is so intensely colored, and others from other pockets are not. I have seen the same effect in China, rarely, at a similar mine. The conditions just have to be right, once, and in all the pockets of this mine, each is subtly different.
- JB17-BVA1
- Ruby in Marble
- Mogok Valley, Burma
- Miniature, 5.0 x 4.0 x 3.0 cm
Rubies from Mogok are simply the most highly valued in the world, in gems or in minerals. The mining here is insane, with 500,000 workers in the Mogok Valley mining every day and splitting the few things found. We recently watched a video made for TV by Federico Barlocher, that seems to be the first time any Westerner has been allowed to make videos deep in the mines and of the full context of the mining operations. It is, in one word, humbling (the 2017 Dallas Mineral Collecting Symposium - dallassymposium.org - featured his talk and video, included in the Jan-Feb 2018 issue of the Mineralogical Record). Specimens are few, and now I understand why. It is incredibly rare to find an aesthetic ruby, and then to keep it from being cut is as great a challenge.
- JB16-1617
- Benitoite (huge crystal on matrix)
- Dallas Gem Mine area, Diablo Range, San Benito Co., California, USA
- Miniature, 5.5 x 5.1 x 4.8 cm
This remarkable large benitoite crystal recently came out of a private collection, and is the largest robust crystal of this size and quality together, that I have personally seen. The crystal measure 3.5 cm tall and across, and is 1.7 cm thick. It stands isolated on a natural pedestal of hard rock matrix, and is viewable 360 degrees all around, with equal appeal. A small secondary crystal sits behind it. I know the whole history of the specimen, and it was etched out of its matrix by a friend who is the only previous owner, so I can guarantee that it is natural and not "assembled" despite its too-good-to-be-true look. Overall, because of the incredible size and presentation quality of this deep blue crystal, this is one of the most important USA specimens I have ever handled, and among the most important benitoite specimens around - ever - in my opinion.
- JB17-1919
- Smoky Quartz Gwindel
- Puiva Mine, Saranpaul, Western-Siberian Region, Russia
- Large Cabinet, 15.5 x 13.5 x 8.0 cm
Gwindels, or twisted quartzes, come at their best from a very very few high Alpine deposits, worldwide. The twist in a gwindel is proportional to its drama (and value), and here you see a dramatic and pronounced twisting. For some reason, most tend to be smoky quartz, and the best of the best came from Chamonix in France, a few small clefts in Switzerland, and this one lonely mountain in Russia. This particular piece came out in the 1980s heyday here - when the Wall fell and Russian specimens came out to the Western market in the mid 1990s, we all thought these were contemporary. However, they came out a decade earlier, in most cases, according to Brad Van Scriver (who handled many). This piece, which came to me from an old collection, is remarkable for the quality of the twist, the intensity of the sparkly luster, and the fine smoky color for this locality.
- JB17-1912
- Aquamarine
- Shigar Valley, Skardu District, Baltistan, Gilgit-Baltistan (Northern Areas), Pakistan
- Cabinet, 15.0 x 14.0 x 6.5 cm
The photos say it all, for this massive, important, piece. It has a truly incredible, vibrant, lively color that must be seen to be believed - and is visible from across the room! Photo by Joe Budd. Comes with a custom lucite base. View a rotating video of this specimen at https://goo.gl/XqGSgF
- JB17-1910
- Dioptase
- Christoph Mine, Kaokoveld Plateau, Kunene Region, Namibia
- Small Cabinet, 6.0 x 3.5 x 3.0 cm
Even after all the other historical localities (Tsumeb, Russia, etc.), there is still something about these elongated dioptase crystals from modern finds in Northern Namibia by Charlie Key (keyite, ludlockite, and the Indiana Jones of mineral collecting in Southern Africa) and his mining team that blows me away - and this is among the largest crystals found, with a superb, pristine, nearly 4 cm crystal standing straight up on well-trimmed matrix. It is COMPLETE ALL AROUND, with a full 360 termination! After years of prospecting, they mined these in the years around 2005-2010, though lost control over the claim shortly after. This specimen, one kept back in his personal collection, is simply off the charts, unexpected, and too big to exist in such pristine quality combined with aesthetics. It should not exist. I was literally stunned to see it.
- JB17-1905
- Apophyllite on Stilbite
- Savada, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India
- Cabinet, 11.5 x 10.5 x 9.5 cm
Apophyllite in a quality and style not often seen before, for this combination in this size, with an 8 cm gem point standing straight up from contrasting matrix! A single remarkable pocket produced these sharp, standing gem crystals of exceedingly gemmy mint-green apophyllite perched on clouds of pink stilbite, right before Tucson of 2017. While we have seen similar in the past, in smaller size, I cannot recall seeing such a monster of this quality. I bought all I could, and sent them to the lab for cleaning and preparation. The few I did not get to fast enough, had already sold into major collections before even being cleaned and prepared, just as mine-run. Under a dozen were as remarkable as this piece for aesthetics, still fewer of this size, and all of these stand to me among the best examples we have yet seen of the species from this deposit.
- JB17-1909
- Gold
- Colorado Quartz Mine, Mother Lode Belt, Mariposa Co., California, USA
- Cabinet, 10.3 x 6.2 x 2.0 cm
Gold from California is plentiful, but cabinet pieces with exquisite crystallization are not. This mine is perhaps the single most famous source of the finest crystallized golds in modern times, with several different mining operations following the vein across the last 100 years. This piece has superb crystallization and is freestanding and perfect on both sides, typical of what this mine is famous for (example: the Dragon Gold in Houston). This specimen was acquired by well-known collector Richard Kosnar in the 1980s, and stocked away in the family collection until a few years ago, when a private collector bought it. I am told that he was told it came from the early era here, 1920s-1940s, though there is not way to prove it now. In any case, spectacular, large gold specimens like this are uncommonly seen on the public market, and this is the first time it has been for public sale in nearly 40 years.
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