Cuprite (large crystals) with Malachite

Item Description

This is a rather impressive specimen of Cuprite with Malachite from the famous Mashamba West Mine featuring some of the LARGEST crystals of Cuprite I've seen from this locality. Most Cuprites from this well-known mine range between 1-2 cm, but this heavily striated / dramatically stepped octahedral crystal measures a whopping 4.4 cm at its longest dimension! With strong backlighting, you can see the Cuprite is actually GEMMY inside with an intense blood-red hue. The surface of the crystal has a classic muted metallic luster. The Cuprite might look contacted, if you look closely, you can see it's actually in great shape with no major damage that I can find. Associated rich emerald green Malachite makes for a wonderful contrast. It's hard to really get the appearance of the piece to accurately come through in video or photos, but it's quite impressive in person. If you collect copper minerals, specimens from DR Congo, or you're just a fan of unique and impressive examples of classic material, be sure to pick this one up for a great price. If I had this one for sale on the shelf at a show, I would have it priced at about $4,000 retail. From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#36 KON), 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. WWe at The Arkenstone have the privilege of offering the remainder of this great worldwide collection over the coming months and years through our various platforms.