Galena (ex Paul Zerfass Collection)

Item Description

A classic specimen from the famous mining region in far eastern Russia. Galenas from the Nikolaevskiy Mine are icons from the modern age of mineral collecting in Russia. This piece is filled with robust, stout, sharp, very lustrous / splendent, metallic, bright silvery colored modified dodecahedra of Galena measuring up to 2.8 cm. If you look closely there are some interesting tan crystals of Siderite that are actually hollow in areas, and perhaps have been pseudomorphed by another mineral. The piece is in great shape with minimal roughness around the edges, but no major damage that I can see. Showy, attractive and relatively obscure on the market today though there were hundreds of them 20 years ago. Valued at $1200. From the collection of the long time, beloved, well-known French field collector, Paul Zerfass (Collection #203). Zerfass built this worldwide collection over nearly 50 years, many of which were personally collected. A biography featuring specimens from his collection (along with his face on the cover) is in the May - June 2017 issue of French mineral magazine, Le Regne Mineral. We have a .pdf copy of the article for anybody interested in reading it (though it's mostly in French). Just drop us a line and know that you'd like to have a copy.