Baryte (large crystal) with Malachite and Chrysocolla

Item Description

This is unquestionably one of the largest Barytes I've seen from the Mashamba West Mine in DR Congo. These are MUCH rarer than the Barytes from the Shangulowé Mine, and as far as I know, only a few pockets were found. They are remarkable for their intense warm hues, and good gemminess/clarity. This piece hosts several very good sized, razor-sharp, highly lustrous, fairly thick, deep golden-amber colored crystals, associated with pale greenish botryoidal Chrysocolla, and minor velvety green Malachite. When the crystals are backlit, some of them show "phantom" color zoning, with varying hues of orange/gold/amber, etc., but a couple of the smaller crystals are virtually WATER-CLEAR! No major damage, save the base where the piece was removed from the pocket wall. A truly impressive and notably hard to find example of these seldom-seen Barytes.
Valued $5,000.
From the collection of Jack Halpern No. 2770 . Jack was born May 18, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York, but has been a long-time resident of San Francisco. He assembled one of the great mineral collections in the world encompassing over 3,200 specimens with a specific emphasis on color, quality, and style/aesthetics, which is evident in every piece. He admired specimens of all sizes from thumbnails to large cabinets and the vast majority of them rank from fine to world-class in their quality.
Above all else, Jack is considered to be the greatest gentleman in the modern era of mineral collecting. He is beloved by all those who have met him, and he truly is one of the most iconic figures in the mineral world. We recently acquired Jack's 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 pieces for their collections. We are honored to have the opportunity to offer Jack's treasures to everyone on a regular basis in the auctions.
We encourage you to read our blog post at https://www.irocks.com/the-jack-halpern-collection or his profile on the Mineralogical Record website https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/halpernjack/ for more information