Kutnohorite

Item Description

A gorgeous cabinet sized specimen of Kutnohorite from the Wessels Mine (labeled as Hotazel) featuring dozens of attractive pink colored, sparkling botryoidal aggregates, intergrown to form a showy display piece. The piece is largely crystallized all around, with very very minor matrix, so it's incredibly close to being a complete "floater". I want to stress that this piece was erroneously labeled as Inesite, and the confusion is further extended by the fact that there is a label from Ken Roberts that accompanies the piece which mentions that this is a cobalt-manganese member of the Calcite family, which is completely incorrect. The piece is certainly Kutnohorite, not Inesite, and it's actually a member of the Dolomite Group with a chemical formula of calcium manganese carbonate. With that said, it's a very pretty Kutnohorite and superb quality all around. A really sublime piece of what are some of the finest Kutnohorites in the world. The piece was originally part of the Clifford Krueger collection.
From the collection of Jack Halpern No. 3101. Jack was born May 18, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York, but has been a long-time resident of San Francisco. He assembled one of the great mineral collections in the world encompassing over 3,200 specimens with a specific emphasis on color, quality, and style/aesthetics, which is evident in every piece. He admired specimens of all sizes from thumbnails to large cabinets and the vast majority of them rank from fine to world-class in their quality.
Above all else, Jack is considered to be the greatest gentleman in the modern era of mineral collecting. He is beloved by all those who have met him, and he truly is one of the most iconic figures in the mineral world. We recently acquired Jack's 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 pieces for their collections. We are honored to have the opportunity to offer Jack's treasures to everyone on a regular basis in the auctions.
We encourage you to read our blog post at https://www.irocks.com/the-jack-halpern-collection or his profile on the Mineralogical Record website https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/halpernjack/ for more information