significant Azurite on Malachite ps. Azurite

Item Description

Tsumeb is legendary for the famous variety of azurites that came out of the mine, over the course of 100 years or so from the late 1890s through the 1990s. However, the colorful combinations of azurite and malachite, mostly as a replacement after azurite, are the single most important styles in terms of value and appreciation to many collectors. This has always been a memorable specimen, and I recall seeing it long ago in another collection (the Norm and Roz Pellman collection if I remember correctly), because it shows off an amazing combination of generations of growth. The major crystal is a malachite, pseudomorphed after azurite. It has a very robust and pointed termination, wider than usual, and we always suspected this came from very old material (prior to the modern mining era after the 1960s, in any case). Sitting atop the malachite replacement of previous robust azurite, is an electric blue growth of second generation azurite, showing flashes of METALLIC COLOR as you turn it in the light. This is a very unusual type of secondary growth on top of the original azurite. This normally does not happen at Tsumeb, and only occurred rarely even at Milpillas (Mexico) in modern times with a vastly larger azurite production. The thin coating of another azurite growth here is probably under 1 mm thick at the top but grades to 3 or 4 mm thick at the bottom, and shows real crystal faces with luster and sharpness....totally unexpected! It is like glass in how it reflects light and is just mesmerizing in person. Jack Halpern paid $50,000 for this in the early 2000s (looks like in 2005) from a major show dealer. It was a memorable specimen and I recall other people talking about it; and a friend going back to buy it, but it had already sold. Jack did NOT buy it because it was from Tsumeb or because it was intellectually fascinating; but rather just because it was beautiful. That is how he collected - beauty above all else. And, it is really, shockingly beautiful!