Calcite with Dioptase and Hematite inclusions

Item Description

Killer aesthetic 2.5 x 2.5 x 2.5 cm group of three transparent sharp and gemmy calcite crystals on matrix. This is a large, full thumbnail. The photos say it all! This was one of the most requested specimens in the collection, perhaps even iconic in shape and style. Exhibited: The 2010 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show’s Paul Desautel Trophy for Best Mineral Display in Competition; and The 2012 49th Munich Gem and Mineral Show’s African Mineral theme, special invitation on African mineral thumbnails, October 2012, with show label; and in “The Best of the Best: Prize Minerals from the Vaults of Arizona Collectors”, held at the University of Arizona’s Flandrau Science Center & Planetarium, from February 8 to December 23, 2014, with label. Illustrated: The Mineralogical Record, Arizona Mineral Collections, 2013; 44(3) (Suppl): 199, with illustrated specimen label from The Mineralogical Record; and Minerals: The Collectors Newspaper, 2014; 8: 19. Recently, the Scovil photo was published in Mineralogical Record, Refined Elegance: The Small Treasures of Mineralogy, November 2022, warranting a full page. From: Dave Bunk (Dave Bunk Minerals, Denver, Colorado), February 16, 2008, with label and invoice, and Blair and Robyn Gartrell (Westaus Mineral Museum Collection) label, previously from the Jim Minette Collection. Gartrell wrote on the label that they paid $200.00 for specimen and this was in prehistory in terms of valuation of thumbnails! The Minettes, among the most devoted and aggressive fine thumbnail collectors of their time (latter 1900s), purchased it from the Gartrell’s in February 1994 and owned it until after Jim passed away, and the collection was sold. Jim Minette described the specimen as, “Superb group 3 extremely sharp rhombs, dioptase and hematite inclusions. From John Innes, Tsumeb geologist, collection. Collected August 1979.” Innes seemed to prefer larger specimens, and sold this to his friends in Australia. So, we know that it was collected by John in 1979, sold to the Gartrells (early fine TN collectors who had a particularly superb African collection ), then to the Minettes (among the top TN collectors in the world); and finally to Alex. That is three collections since 1970, in 50-plus years. Things like this do not change hands, often.