Cinnabar on Quartz (ex Al Kidwell Collection)

Item Description

A classic specimen of the famous Cinnabar crystals from Tongren. This piece features excellent, sharp, well-formed, intense red, crystals of Cinnabar measuring up to 6 mm long sitting atop slightly smoky colored Quartz matrix. A showy miniature specimen and the color is just about as good as it gets for Cinnabar from any locality. When backlit, the Cinnabar crystals just GLOW with color! This is an older specimen dating back about 20 years, with only a little damage that I can see with the naked eye. Interestingly, this mine accounts for 50% of all the mercury deposits in China! It should be noted that this piece was erroneously labeled as coming from "Shimen", which is actually the famous Realgar locality in China. From the worldwide mineral collection of Albert Lewis Kidwell (January 1, 1919 - August 16, 2008). Al was a well-known mineral collector and research geologist with Carter Oil Company and later Exxon Oil Company in Houston, Texas. The phosphate species Kidwellite was named in his honor in 1974.