Sphalerite pseudomorph after Wurtzite (rare from Butte)

Item Description

Display quality specimens of Sphalerite are actually fairly hard to find from Butte, and pseudomorphs like this are notably rare. This piece is a showy and dramatic big cabinet-sized specimen featuring a somewhat "rose"-esque-shaped group (George's label refers to it as a "boxwork" of blades of what was originally Wurtzite (a zinc iron sulfide) that have been pseudomorphed by Sphalerite (a zinc sulfide), creating a raised "ridge" of crystals that measures approximately 9.5 cm long, running diagonally across a matrix covered my small translucent, colorless Quartz crystals. Additionally, there are a pair of broken Baryte blades on the thicker end of the Sphalerite/Wurtzite group. It's honestly a remarkable specimen, the only one of its kind I can remember seeing from Butte, and it's such a striking piece visually, but also from a paragenesis standpoint. This is an important specimen for the locality, but also a very significant pseudomorph, regardless of where it was found. The piece was originally purchased over 20 years ago for $500, but I truly value it much higher in today's market for its size, quality and rarity, and I would put it in the $5,000 range for what it is. Truly irreplaceable on the market, you'll likely never seen another of its kind in this size range for sale in an open auction setting such as this, don't miss out. It's honesty one of my favorite pieces in this set from George's collection.
The piece was originally part of the collection of Ed Boucher, and came to George by way of Dr. Robert (Bob) Jenkins.
Ex George Loud Collection No. 6271; 2621 MT.4. George (born August 16, 1942) is a well-known mineral collector from Washington, DC and South Carolina respectively, and was a patent lawyer by trade for over 50 years. He assembled one of the great mineral collections in the U.S., comprising worldwide specimens, and in later years he sold the worldwide specimens to focus on minerals of the United States, specifically locality suites with an emphasis on amazing representation of species while still maintaining fine quality. The specimens remarkably range from micros to all the way up to large cabinets in size. We recently acquired most of his impressive 9000+ piece collection, and the VAST majority of these pieces will be offered here in the auctions, as we feel that everyone deserves and equal opportunity at acquiring these important, well-documented and fine quality specimens for their collections.
See: https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/george-loud for more information