Azurite (''rose'') (fine thumbnail)

Item Description

Bisbee is one of the great Azurite localities in the world, as it produced some truly world-class and iconic specimens from its various mines. This piece is a classic example of the highly desirable "rose"-shaped groups, filled with excellent, sharp, lustrous, rich blue colored bladed crystals on all sides. The piece is nearly a complete "floater", but I can see one tiny point of attachment on the underside where there is a bit of associated Malachite, but it's largely crystallized all over. The piece comes with a hand-written tag stating it is "The Bisbee Blueberry", and I can certainly see what the piece earned that nickname. It's hard to find complete "roses" like this in full sized thumbnail examples from Bisbee, and the former dealer label accompanying the piece had a value of $800, I could easily see it well over the $1,000 range for the quality and the desirable, classic locality.
From the collection of Jim Houran.