Sphalerite (GEMMY crystals) on Quartz

Item Description

The Sphalerites from the Shuikoushan Mine are some of the best examples from China. They started making their way to the market about 15 years ago, and have all but disappeared from the market. This piece is a beautiful large cabinet display specimen featuring superb, sharp, lustrous, very gemmy complex Sphalerite crystal groups measuring up to 1.7 cm sitting on drusy Quartz crystals which are colored red by a subsurface layer of iron oxide (Hematite?) on host rock matrix. The Sphalerites GLOW with a brilliant electric orange color when backlit, similar to the color of the finest Spessartine Garnet. Overall, the piece is in remarkably good condition as most of the Sphalerite groups are undamaged, but there are a few cleaves here and there. This is a fine specimen of this high quality material that didn't get enough attention when they were available, but are now sought after by collectors for their excellent color, quality and gemminess of the Sphalerites. Priced at $1,950 in the inventory.