Malachite, Chrysocolla & Quartz (lapidary art)

Item Description

Unique, sculptural, tapered, art carved and polished malachite and chrysocolla in quartz from a much less well-known area of DR Congo. The fabulous veinlets of green malachite accented with blue chrysocolla embedded on both sides of the sparkly druzy quartz matrix dramatically accent the biomorphic look of the piece with the body, rounded head and nose and single eye on one side. Kalumines is a copper mining property that includes the Kasonta, Lupoto and Niamumenda concessions, with a combined area of 77 square kilometres (30 sq mi). It is about 25 kilometres (16 mi) northwest of Lubumbashi in Haut-Katanga Province, DR Congo. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalumines. The piece was carved by well-known Arizona artist, Bud Standley, who specialized in such freeform carvings at the time and whose work was in the collections of many major dealers and collectors of the day. He is considered one of the best craftsman for working azurite and malachite, and was responsible for much work on Arizona rough from both Bisbee and Morenci, now in many collections of lapidary and jewelry. He dabbled a bit when he found, rarely, high quality DR Congo material. An exquisite example of lapidary work from his collection, part of which we recently bought.