Corundum var: Sapphire

Item Description

A fantastic, highly displayable specimen of these now hard to find Sapphires from the Zazafotsy Quarry (Amboarohy) in Madagascar. According to the entry on mindat.org, this locality has existed since the 1950s, but specimens really didn't show up on the market until the early 2000s when Federico Pezzotta and Rakotonoel (a local mineral collector/dealer) decided to exploit a few zones within the quarry for these iconic crystals. Without question, these pieces represent the finest examples of crystallized Sapphire from any locality in Madagascar, for the fact that they are often notably well-formed, with fine colors and they're on matrix, which is not common for Malagasy Sapphires. For both size and quality, this is a great display piece of this iconic material. This small cabinet sized piece features several excellent quality, sharp, lustrous, prismatic, hexagonal crystals measuring to 3.0 cm at the longest dimension, perched smartly on black Phlogopite matrix. The color of the crystals is a rich blue shade throughout the majority of the crystals, but there are some spots which shows a pinkish-purple hue Some of these specimens show an obvious color change from indoor lighting to sunlight, but I can't see much of a change in this piece. It is one of the better pieces of this material that we've had to offer in the auctions, and is notably aesthetic to boot ! Valued $6,000-$7,000.
From the collection of Jack Halpern No. 3486. Jack was born May 18, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York, but has been a long-time resident of San Francisco. He assembled one of the great mineral collections in the world encompassing over 3,200 specimens with a specific emphasis on color, quality, and style/aesthetics, which is evident in every piece. He admired specimens of all sizes from thumbnails to large cabinets and the vast majority of them rank from fine to world-class in their quality.
Above all else, Jack is considered to be the greatest gentleman in the modern era of mineral collecting. He is beloved by all those who have met him, and he truly is one of the most iconic figures in the mineral world. We recently acquired Jack's collection, and the VAST majority of these pieces will be offered here in the auctions, as we feel that everyone deserves and equal opportunity at acquiring these important, well-documented and fine quality pieces for their collections. We are honored to have the opportunity to offer Jack's treasures to everyone on a regular basis in the auctions.
We encourage you to read our blog post at https://www.irocks.com/the-jack-halpern-collection or his profile on the Mineralogical Record website https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/halpernjack/ for more information