Cuprite coated by Malachite with Dolomite

Item Description

A wonderful miniature display specimen from what most people agree is the world's greatest mineral locality, the famed Tsumeb Mine. This piece reminds me of the old famous Malachite / Cuprite specimens from the Onganja, Namibia, but this one honestly is more colorful and eye-catching, plus it's on matrix. The piece hosts a "rosette"-esque group of sharp, lustrous, deep red metallic Cuprite crystals with a slight coating (possibly a result of oxidation) of rich emerald green colored fibrous Malachite, sitting on contrast white pearly Dolomite on matrix. The combo of rich red and green hues is captivating and the piece looks best under strong lighting where you can really see the Cuprite peeking through the overlain Malachite. The whole Cuprite group measures 3.0 cm across. Choice material, very attractive in person, and certainly not commonly seen from Tsumeb. There are few like this, and I seem to remember being told that there was only a single pocket that produced this particular style of these minerals together. Valued $1,750.
From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#38 T), 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 over the next two to three years through our various platforms.