SOLD
MD-280371
Vivianite
Morococala Mine, Santa Fe Mining District, Dalence Province, Oruro Department, Bolivia
Cabinet, 15.2 x 12.5 x 6.0 cm
SOLD
This specimen has two crossing crystal clusters forming an X shape. The frontal composite-crystal is 14 x 7 x 4 cm in size. The back crystal is doubly-terminated, elegant and thinner, but gemmier; also with a deep green color when backlit strongly. The luster is fantastic, like glass, on all front faces. The piece is complete-all-around and pristine, save only one small contact at the lower tip of the front of the specimen. The mass is 850 grams. Vivanite from the 1980s finds here still sets the standard for sheer size and impact, for the species. True, other locales and styles are more gemmy or elegant, but no other finds present the sheer mass of vivianite, and these huge, frontal, lustrous faces. They remain classics, no seldom seen on the market. This particular specimen is a piece from those classic days, that I have known about for a decade or so, after it turned up again in the late 1990s in the Freilich collection which was exhibited in Tucson at 2000 show. When that noted collection was broken up for sale, at auction in 2001, this was item #253 in the Sotheby's catalogue for the collection. It sold at auction, and then ended up by 2003 in the Ed David collection, in New Jersey, and now has his #54C attached.