Chrysocolla and Quartz pocket

Item Description

This item is part of a special benefit auction for the Rice Museum of Rocks & Minerals (ricenorthwestmuseum.org). Items are either deaccessions from the museum's collection or items donated from generous supporters listed below.

Auction open April 1, 2021 through April 17, 2021.

Billing for this auction will occur on Monday, April 19, for payment using PayPal or credit card. Shipping will be billed at cost, or please contact brandy@mineralauctions.com if you'd like to plan on picking up items at future shows or during a stop through Dallas.

The collection of the Rices was heavy in Arizona classics and treasures when they made the decision to create the Rice Museum and donate their collection, preserving many larger size specimens that otherwise surely would have been cut up by now, for the market in lapidary materials from this mine (in the 1950s-1960s). This remarkable large piece is both specimen and lapidary at the same time. The specimen is a COMPLETE POCKET of silica-infused copper ores (a combination of quartz mixed with the chrysocolla to give it strength and solidity, sparkle and translucency). In one view, it presents a pocket of beautiful bubbles of quartz and chrysocolla mixed together. The bottom, meanwhile, is polished with a high degree of skill and quality, to reveal a palette of gorgeous intense colors of the copper minerals. Because of the infusion of silica fluids, it is hard and takes a good polish. This masses in at 3 kilograms, 6.6 pounds weight!