- ART-11
- Amazonite With Smoky Quartz
- Smoky Hawk claim, Crystal Peak area, Teller Co., Colorado, USA
- Cabinet, 11.0 x 8.2 x 6.3 cm
- SOLD
ex. Wally Mann Collection This is a very fine cabinet piece from 2005 mining at this important amazonite district. It features a nearly 2 inch smoky quartz leaping out from surrounding amazonite. The stark contrast of color and form has always made these combination pieces treasured classics, and admittedly the world's best come only intermittently from a small area of Colorado! This specimen was purchased by the previous collector as soon as it was put on the shelf for sale by Joe Dorris, who mined it. We all thought it was mispriced, clearly as good or BETTER than pieces marked $12-15k and more with Joe and with his mining partners at another dealership. Like all of these clusters, it is multiply repaired but this goes with the territory and as long as the repairs are clean (which they are), posed no objection when he brought it into a crowd of about 6 Dallas area collectors in the hallway at the Denver show that year to get a vote on it (which was unanimous). So my friend, collector Wally Mann, jumped on this at the time when he had not previously owned a good one that met his criteria for quality and aesthetics at this price range. However, I traded this from him last year in early 2008, and Gamini took it right off my shelf, as soon as he saw me putting it out. He, like I, loved the stark contrast, and the aesthetics of the dominant smoky atop the "blue mountains" - you can see that in the painting he tried to emphasize that effect of making the amazonites look like natural mountains as much as crystals. There are many amazonites out there to choose from, I admit. But this one I thought was first of a very good aesthetic balance and color; and secondly we all liked the price which was surprisingly reasonable (and remains nearly the same as what he paid). For under 10k, for a cabinet amazonite with good color, I think the paintingis basically a freebie and the piece is shockingly good for the price range. I'd happily take it back later, even, as I cannot get another like it for the price barring another price anomaly from the miners. Price includes specimen, painting, and custom lucite base for display.