Bournonite (ex Francesco Bedogne Collection)

Item Description

One of the few doubly-terminated and nearly complete all the way around specimens of Bournonite that I have offered from Bolivia in the auctions for a while. This piece features a pair of attractive, metallic, grey color, tabular stepped (somewhat "cogwheel"-shaped) crystals free of matrix. The sharpness and smoothness of the faces is extremely good for the locality. The main crystal is not only doubly-terminated, but multi-terminated on each end. It's basically damage free on the display side, and only has a small point of contact on the back. This specimen is from a find in 2008 in Bolivia. This one is better than the majority I've handled from Machacamarca. A piece like this from Machacamarca is very difficult to find, so I hold it in high regard in terms of value. Valued at $1100. From the worldwide collection of famed Italian mineral collector, field collector and author, Francesco Bedogne of Sondrio, Italy (Collection #2292). Bedogne wrote dozens of articles and several books about the mineralogy of Italian Alpine localities such as Val Bregaglia, Val Masino, Val Codera, Val Spluga, Valtellina and the famous Val Malenco. He was also the founder of the Valtellinese Mineralogical Institute.