Smithsonite on Calcite - 1800s, ex Bement, American Museum

Altenberg Mine, Kelmis, Liege, Wallonia, Belgium
Small Cabinet, 7.7 x 6.1 x 3.3 cm
Start Time: 09/23/2021 6:30:00 pm (CDT)
End Time: 09/30/2021 6:40:00 pm (CDT)
Auction Closed
Winning Bid: $1,350

Item Description

Outstanding, mid-1800's combination piece from the Altenberg Mine in what is now Belgium, but was previously Prussia/Germany and at times part of The Netherlands. When I first picked this up, thoughts of the beautiful yellow Smithsonites from Berg Aukus came to mind, but these clusters are from Europe! The smithsonites are lovely, rounded, spikey, soft-yellow clusters to 9 mm, numerous and nicely distributed across the sparkly calcite covered matrix. Excellent aesthetics, but now let us consider the provenance: This was formerly in the world-renowned collections of Clarence Bement and the American Museum, as well as the that of Eugene Sensel. Accompanying the specimen is a long letter from a Belgian explaining the locality naming , and how the names changed since Bement's time....very interesting, actually!. Also accompanying is a scan/xerox paper of the full accession information from the New York American Museum of Natural History, showing Bement's purchase information (the museum obtained the collection around 1910 as a gift from banker, JP Morgan!). Note that Bement purchased this from apparently an English dealer in 1876 for the princely sum of $2 - a lot of money back then when the dollar was actually worth much more! The museum exchanged this out to Herb Obodda in 1983, legally. Wonderful history on this spectacular weird locality smithsonite specimen! Valued...nothing comparable, so it is hard to say, but good luck!

Did You Know We Offer Custom Bases?

Learn More

Bidding History

Bid Amount Bid Time
$1,350 09/30/2021 6:31:53 pm (CDT)
$1,300 09/30/2021 6:31:47 pm (CDT)
$1,250 09/30/2021 6:31:47 pm (CDT)
$1,200 09/30/2021 6:31:40 pm (CDT)
$1,150 09/30/2021 6:31:40 pm (CDT)
$1,100 09/30/2021 6:25:27 pm (CDT)
$1,050 09/30/2021 6:22:17 pm (CDT)
$1,000 09/30/2021 6:22:06 pm (CDT)
$975 09/30/2021 6:22:06 pm (CDT)
$950 09/30/2021 6:22:00 pm (CDT)
$925 09/30/2021 6:22:00 pm (CDT)
$900 09/30/2021 6:21:53 pm (CDT)
$875 09/30/2021 6:21:53 pm (CDT)
$850 09/30/2021 6:20:57 pm (CDT)
$825 09/30/2021 6:15:01 pm (CDT)
$800 * 09/30/2021 6:14:54 pm (CDT)
$775 09/30/2021 6:14:54 pm (CDT)
$750 * 09/30/2021 6:14:48 pm (CDT)
$725 09/30/2021 6:14:48 pm (CDT)
$700 * 09/30/2021 5:26:49 pm (CDT)
$700 * 09/30/2021 5:26:49 pm (CDT)
$650 09/30/2021 5:24:23 pm (CDT)
$625 09/30/2021 5:24:23 pm (CDT)
$600 09/30/2021 5:20:29 pm (CDT)
$575 09/30/2021 4:46:15 pm (CDT)
$560 09/30/2021 4:46:15 pm (CDT)
$525 09/30/2021 4:40:23 pm (CDT)
$500 09/30/2021 4:40:23 pm (CDT)
$435 09/30/2021 10:39:41 am (CDT)
$425 09/30/2021 10:39:41 am (CDT)
$410 09/30/2021 10:34:34 am (CDT)
$400 09/30/2021 10:34:34 am (CDT)
$385 09/30/2021 10:34:24 am (CDT)
$375 09/30/2021 10:34:24 am (CDT)
$311 09/27/2021 6:59:36 am (CDT)
$301 09/27/2021 6:59:36 am (CDT)
$270 09/26/2021 2:28:46 pm (CDT)
$260 09/26/2021 2:28:46 pm (CDT)
$179 09/24/2021 10:46:35 pm (CDT)
$169 09/24/2021 10:46:35 pm (CDT)
$110 09/24/2021 3:41:15 pm (CDT)
$100 09/24/2021 3:41:15 pm (CDT)
$90 09/24/2021 8:23:52 am (CDT)
$80 09/24/2021 8:23:52 am (CDT)
$10 09/24/2021 12:24:16 am (CDT)
* Proxy Bid Battle: In the event of two customers inputting matching proxy bids, the leading bid goes to the earliest of the two proxy bids. Tie winners are shown in bold.