Smithsonite (large multi-colored specimen)

Item Description

The El Refugio Mine, located in Choix, Mexico is famous for producing what are some of the most vividly colored Smithsonites ever found. Often you will find pieces that feature more than one color, and this piece is a stellar example. This impressive large cabinet is a notably colorful, sculptural and classic big display piece of Smithsonite from the 1960s - 1980s era at Choix. The piece features a layer of beautiful translucent cotton candy blue, pink and green botryoids with a vitreous satin luster cover the rolling banded hefty silvery-lilac colored Smithsonite matrix underneath. The piece shows different hues in different temperature lighting, but it's notably attractive, and one of the better large cabinets that we've had to offer in the auctions recently. There is no other place in the world where you find such robust, multi-colored Smithsonite specimens like this. The largest Smithsonite "ball" measures about 2.6 cm across. Classic material from this mined out locale, that was documented in a 2011 Mineralogical Record Special Issue. Valued at $2,500 -$3,000 for color, size and quality. Specimen weight is 1431 grams or just over 3 pounds.
Ex Dave Stoudt collection, originally from the Ted Bartels collection.