Cinnabar on Dolomite ex Jack Halpern

Item Description

Cinnabar from China is of course, without any argument, world's best of species finds. This specimen is rare in that not only is it a beautiful miniature suitable to jack's style of aesthetics collecting, but it is a VERY rare and almost unique specimen with TWO DIFFERENT STYLES OF CRYSTALLIZATION of cinnabar on the same matrix! Many of Jack's minerals are like this...beautiful, but subtle at the same time. This was purchased in the early 2000s from Dr. Guanghua Liu (author of Fine Minerals Of China book). It features a 1.7-cm-wide compressed octohedral crystal that is like a fat disc, above. The second crystal is GEM translucent flat hexagonal crystal that is over 1 cm across. They make a fabulous counterpoiint. When backlit, both glow cherry red.