Realgar (ex Franceso Bedogne Collection)

Item Description

A hard to find matrix specimen of the beloved and elusive specimens of Realgar from the Royal Reward Mine in Washington. The label accompanying the piece is somewhat incorrect as it was labeled from the "King Mine, Reward, Washington", when it's actually the Royal Reward Mine in King County, Washington. With that said, it's one of the better specimens of the material that I've seen, and these have to be some of the finest crystals of Realgar from anywhere in North America outside of the Getchell Mine in Nevada. A pair of sharp, lustrous, bright cherry red color prismatic crystal of Realgar measuring up to 1.2 cm sit on host rock matrix. The color, luster and gemminess are very good. One crystal is doubly-terminated and appears to be pristine, while the other is slightly contacted on one end. It's still great quality and very hard to find on the market. These specimens came out in the 1940s-1950s and you can only find them in old collections. From the worldwide collection of famed Italian mineral collector, field collector and author, Francesco Bedogne of Sondrio, Italy (Collection #33). Bedogne wrote dozens of articles and several books about the mineralogy of Italian Alpine localities such as Val Bregaglia, Val Masino, Val Codera, Val Spluga, Valtellina and the famous Val Malenco. He was also the founder of the Valtellinese Mineralogical Institute.