Chrysocolla & Quartz var. "Gem" Chrysocolla. Live Oak Pit, Inspiration Mine, Miami-Inspiration Deposit, Inspiration, Miami...

Description

Chrysocolla & Quartz var. "Gem" Chrysocolla
Live Oak Pit, Inspiration Mine, Miami-Inspiration Deposit, Inspiration, Miami-Inspiration District, Globe-Miami District, Gila Co., Arizona, USA

"A polished block of gem grade chrysocolla showing a little malachite. The ends of the rectangular block show the natural contact of the vein of chalcedony. It is not as good as the one in the Richard Rice collection but it is good enough to make most cutters cry. The last I heard was that cabochons of the good material were selling for $50 per carat. This stuff is not that good, or at least most of it is not that good. Bought the contents of a well off rockhound who ran a machine shop and the family finally wanted to clean out the room where the material had been stored for many years. We paid $500 [sic] for two [sic] van loads of material, mostly rough rock. There was a lot of trash in the lot that we just threw away, but out of one box came this block (not polished) and surprised the hell out of me. It was worth several times what we paid for the entire pile."
- Rock H. Currier

Those of the mineral collecting community who have previously looked down their noses about "agate lickers" have had to seriously reconsider their views. The border between "precious" and "semi-precious" has become so blurred now as to be useless as a guideline. The block offered here is a case in point. Rock is totally correct in asserting that such material is now being priced by the carat. Wasn't too many years ago that the per carat price, would have gotten you the whole block. Seen the prices for top quality Agates, lately? Ignoring this area of collecting is going to cause a lot of 'coulda, shoulda, woulda' thinking among our happy little band, down the road, if it hasn't already. This piece of robins-egg-blue happiness weighs almost 1.5 kg (3 lb. 4.6 oz) - that's a lot of gemstones. Rock kept it in the collection so that gem cutters wouldn't be able to saw it up - wonder what is going to happen to it now?
BTW it was actually $1,500 (not $500) and four van loads (not 2) plus multiple trailer loads of rock and lapidary equipment. The item that was the icing on the cake for Rock was this piece of Chrysocolla.
Overall Measurements: 5.9 x 3.5 x 1.8 inches (15.0 x 9.0 x 4.5 cm)
Offered at no reserve

Provenance: RHC #6885, acquired 2000

[Scale: 1 inch, with mark at 1 cm]

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