Sphalerite (GEMMY crystals) on Quartz (ex Helen and Raul Madrid Collection)

Item Description

The Sphalerites from the Shuikoushan Mine are some of the best examples of the species from any Chinese locality. They started making their way to the market about 20 years ago, and have all but disappeared from the market. This piece is a beautiful cabinet display specimen featuring superb, razor sharp, highly lustrous, very gemmy, complex Sphalerite crystal groups measuring up to 2.3 cm sitting on drusy Quartz crystals on host rock matrix. The Sphalerites GLOW with a brilliant red-orange color when backlit. Garnet. Overall, the piece is in remarkably good condition as most of the Sphalerite groups are undamaged, but there are a few small imperfections here and there. This is a fabulous specimen of this high quality material that didn't get enough attention when they were available, but are now sought after by collectors for their excellent color, quality and gemminess of the Sphalerites. Priced at $5,000 in the inventory. The piece comes to us from the collection of Helen and Raul Madrid.