Galena ("Spinel" Twins) on Quartz

Item Description

The various mines around the Dalnegorsk Urban District in far eastern Russia are celebrated for producing some of the finest quality and most displayable specimens of various sulfides extant. This wonderful cabinet sized display specimen is most likely from Nikolaevskiy Mine, but it was simply labeled as coming from Dalnegorsk, so it's difficult to know for certain. What is certain is that these Galena specimens are icons from the modern age of mineral collecting in Russia. This piece features several impressive, dramatic, well-formed, lustrous, metallic, silvery-grey colored "Spinel-Law" twins of Galena aesthetically perched atop thin white prismatic Quartz crystals with minor associated golden Pyrite on the base. The largest twinned group measures 4.1 cm across, and the aesthetics leave nothing to be desired. In addition to the twins, there are many sharp, distinct, un-twinned cuboctahedral crystals of Galena that can be seen scattered around the specimen. The piece is in great shape with no major damage that I can see to the main crystals, just some roughness on the base where it was removed from the pocket wall. It's not easy to find such showy and attractive display specimen of this material, and they are relatively obscure on the market today, despite the fact that there were a good amount 25 years ago. Price in our inventory at $3,500. The piece comes with a wonderful old label from legendary New York City mineral dealer, Larry Conklin.