Chalcocite (classic material) (ex David Burgess Collection)

Item Description

There are a few localities around the world for really attractive, fine quality, well-crystallized Chalcocite specimens, but many of them are old historic locales, and haven't produced specimens in many decades. When the Flambeau Mine started producing pieces during the mid 1990s, it really bolstered the supply of fine crystallized pieces for collectors. The locality is finished and although these pieces were well-known and fairly easy to find on the market 20+ years ago, they are incredibly hard to find today. This piece is a very attractive miniature featuring excellent quality, sharp, well-formed, stacked / layered, pseudo-hexagonal (monoclinic) blades of Chalcocite with a classic "peacock"-like patina or "sheen" on the surface (it's actually a small coating of Bornite) which shows flashes of metallic purple, blue and pink. The largest crystal measures 5 mm across, and the entire piece is nearly pristine all the way around with only minor spots of roughness. I can't really find any major damage, and it's very showy and eye-catching as you can see from the photos. Excellent quality, great form, and that classic iridescent sheen make it a wonderful example of a material that is not seen on the market these days. This piece was priced in our inventory at $950. From the worldwide collection of David Burgess (1951-2016). David was a prolific species collector from Newington, Connecticut, and the namesake for the extremely rare cobalt arsenate species Burgessite, which he discovered.