Gold on Quartz

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 were donated by 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.

A brilliant, butter-yellow, bright metallic, triangular shaped lattice of arborescent Washington Gold sits adroitly on a stark white Quartz matrix. Several, parallel, V-shaped, triangular groupings of elongate Gold crystals are beset with tiny, feather-like appendages of Gold growing off of them that constitute this beautiful geometric arrangement hosted on a fragment of white Quartz. The architectural composition of the Gold along with the contrast to the Quartz makes for a very fine, competitively aesthetic thumbnail - the best of the thumbnail lots here for overall robust quality and geometry as a whole, in our opinion. It is not delicate or fragile at all. The specimen comes with a custom museum display box made of glass. It is 4 grams, seemingly delicate but actually a major thumbnail example of Washington gold. Valued $2000 or more, and better in person than photos can convey.