Cuprite (good quality) (ex Ed McDole and Kay Robertson Collections)

Item Description

A rarely seen BEAUTIFULLY crystallized thumbnail specimen of Curpite from the Chino Mine. Typically, I've only seen crude or crystalline examples of Cuprite, and I can't recall seeing such well-formed, sharp crystals from this locality. This piece features a handful of notably sharp, well-formed, deep blood red color (when strongly backlit) cuboctahedral crystals of Cuprite measuring up to 1.0 cm on minor matrix. It's certainly a showy and eye-catching thumbnail for the species, regardless of locality, but it's even more enticing being from Chino Mine. Oddly I think the number was placed on the front of the piece as the best crystal can be seen from that side, but it's still an impressive and attractive example of these very hard to find specimens. Ex Kay Robertson Collection (#9306) with a note on the label that it came from the legendary Ed McDole! Kay is a prominent California collector, who specialized in European classics (see the article in the March-April, 2007 Mineralogical Record and the 50+ page article in the German Magazine "Mineralien Welt" November-December 2017). I can't begin to think of the value of such a hard to find beauty from this classic American locality.