Kolovratite (exceptionally rare)

Item Description

An exceptionally rare example of the hydrated nickel zinc vanadate species, Kolovratite. According to mindat.org, the species was named for, "Lev Stanislovich Kolovrat-Chervinckii (Лев Станиславович Коловрат-Червинский) (4 (16) December 1884, Russian Empire - 24 January 1921, Russian Empire), Russian physicist and radiologist, Mineralogical Laboratory, Russian Academy of Science, St. Petersburg, Russia, who studied the Tyuya-Muyun uranium deposit, Kyrgyzstan". This species is only found in THREE localities on earth, two of which are in Kyrgyzstan, including the type locality. This piece is labeled only as coming from "Fergana" and "Fergana Tal" (which translates to Fergana Valley in English), so I'm very confident that it's from Uch-Kurgan, and not Kara-Chagyr Mountain. With that said, this is an impressive example featuring a rich amount of pale yellow-green Kolovratite on matrix. The piece is best seen under magnification, and we've photographed it under magnification to better illustrate it. If you collect rarities, this is something that you will have an incredibly hard time finding another example for sale anywhere, so don't miss out. From the collection of Colin Manlove. The piece comes with a fantastic old hand-written label from French mineralogist Jean Béhier (the namesake for the rare borate Béhierite). He died in 1965, so this piece is almost certainly at least 60 years old.