Cuprite

Item Description

An impressive and fine quality specimen of Cuprite from this giant open pit copper mine in China. The piece was mined in the early 2000s, and represents some of the best crystals to come out of the locality, despite the smaller size. The central vug on this specimen is filled with beautifully lustrous, deep red colored crystals of Cuprite which show wonderful internal gemminess when backlit, measuring up to 5 mm, sitting on a hefty copper-bearing matrix. The Cuprites are predominantly cuboctahedral in habit, though I can see some small dodecahedral modifications when I look at the piece with a loupe. Virtually all of the crystals are pristine, and they look so nice up close. There is a slight iridescence on the surface of the Cuprites, probably due to some state of oxidation, but it gives them an almost "mystic" quality (like Mystic Topaz), that is not often seen in the species. There is a second vug on the specimen filled with smaller Cuprites that have a notably silver color on the surface in reflected light, which is notably different from the larger Cuprites on the front of the piece. A really choice example of these now hard to find specimens from this prolific locality. From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#247 C), a well-known German collector all over Europe with worldwide contacts to dealers and collectors. He started collecting seriously at the age of 14 and his great and varied worldwide collection reached over 6000 pieces. He was very active mineralogically until shortly before his passing in 2020 at the age of 82. Considering his collection had a large number of pieces, it still had an unusually high standard of quality from most worldwide localities. He particularly specialized in all classics as well as minerals of the Black Forest, where he spent much time collecting. His Black Forest and German subcollections went to his good friend Wolfgang Wendel. We at The Arkenstone have the privilege of offering the remainder of this great worldwide collection for the coming months/years through our various platforms.