Azurite w/ Aurichalcite (1835! - RARE) Neeld & Robertson Coll.

Item Description

An OLD-TIME, RARE, important and historical azurite from the famous and ancient copper mines at Chessy. The aesthetic elongated rosette "ball" is composed of a myriad of densely intergrown, lustrous, blocky to platy, dark navy-blue crystals with gorgeous flashes of electric-blue color under bright light. The crystals reach about 1.0 cm. The small blue-green coatings on one face are VERY RARE for the locale, and seem to be aurichalcite. Complete all-around and nearly pristine, with only trivial bruising. It is a floater. The Chessy mines were closed by 1875. This exceptional old-timer has a fine provenance: The antique azurite was once in the collection of Colonel Joseph Neeld, 1789-1856 (# 2454) and was found before 1835. He was a Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom and a Colonel in the Royal Army. This collection, long forgotten and lost track of, resurfaced in England in the early 1980s and was purchased by Richard Barstow (no Neeld labels survived, but the specimens were intact and this specimen preserves that supply provenance from Richard Barstow). Ex Kay Robertson Collection # 8852 and acquired in the early 1980s. Kay is a prominent California collector, who specialized in European classics (see the article in the March-April, 2007 Mineralogical Record). This is a remarkable specimen for the locality, history aside, and is valued at $2000 or more aside from the Neeld provenance.