Dioptase (''bow tie''-shaped groups)

Christmas Mine, Banner Dist., Gila Co., Arizona, USA
Ex. George Loud; Dick and Joyce Willis
Small Cabinet, 8.4 x 3.4 x 2.3 cm
Start Time: 01/23/2025 8:00:00 pm (CST)
End Time: 02/02/2025 6:00:00 pm (CST)
Auction Closed
Winning Bid: $110

Item Description

The Christmas Mine is a well-known locality which lies, "8 miles (ca. 13 km) N of Winkleman, 22 miles (ca. 35 km) S of Globe" according to the entry on mindat.org. This mine dates back to 1880 and actually operated intermittently until 1982. It has produced a good number of distinctive and beautiful secondary ore minerals, including some of the most attractive Dioptase specimens from anywhere in the state. This piece is a showy small cabinet-sized specimen featuring dozens of excellent, intense emerald green colored, trigonal crystals which measure to about 2 mm, but what they lack in size, they make up for in beauty as they are gorgeous under magnification. The crystals have formed in rarely seen "bow tie"-shaped groups, which is known from the Christmas Mine, but still incredibly hard to find. How appropriate to find little green "bows" from the Christmas Mine.
Ex George Loud Collection No. 383 AZ.3; 6235 . George (born August 16, 1942) is a well-known mineral collector from Washington, DC and South Carolina respectively, and was a patent lawyer by trade for over 50 years. He assembled one of the great mineral collections in the U.S., comprising worldwide specimens, and in later years he sold the worldwide specimens to focus on minerals of the United States, specifically locality suites with an emphasis on amazing representation of species while still maintaining fine quality. The specimens remarkably range from micros to all the way up to large cabinets in size. We recently acquired most of his impressive 9000+ piece 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 specimens for their collections.
See: https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/george-loud for more information

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Bidding History

Bid Amount Bid Time
$110 02/02/2025 5:35:42 pm (CST)
$100 02/02/2025 5:35:42 pm (CST)
$80 01/31/2025 7:46:01 pm (CST)
$70 01/26/2025 2:15:09 pm (CST)
$65 01/26/2025 2:15:09 pm (CST)
$10 01/24/2025 7:37:31 pm (CST)