TUC14-140
Clinomimetite
Johanngeorgenstadt, Saxony, Germany
Miniature, 4.8 x 3.6 x 1.6 cm
Ex. Eric Asselborn
SOLD
Attractively perched high on a stained quartz matrix, are these incredibly rare lustrous and translucent, pseudo-hexagonal crystals of greenish yellow clinomimetite, to 1.3 cm across. Until recently these crystals from the venerable Johanngeorgenstadt deposit were considered to be among the world's best mimetites, however recent research determined that they were the monoclinic dimorph and a valid species in their own right (same chemical formula, different crystal habit), named as clinomimetite. These were found in the early 1800s and ironically a specimen in the BMNH is, if I recall, also the type specimen for Mimetite even though it is no longer classified as mimetite. ONLY the major museums, and a few old collections, ever have such specimens. The number traded on the open market now, 200 years after they were found, is vanishingly small. Specimens like this quality are rarely seen and can be spectacular. This superb, competition and display quality miniature, was long in the Eric Asselborn collection in France.