Malachite Stalactite slab (polished)

Item Description

This is a huge slab of top quality, intense and saturated green malachite, from the most famous place on earth for decorative carving grade malachite. The material from Congo is so valued because of the natural patterns and swirls preserved within the best slices, such as this, which are cut from thickly grown and joined stalactites. At 1680 grams, this is large. Note that such large slabs need to be stabilized, and so are often (as here) attached to a calcite or marble backing matrix, such that this is actually two layers of stone, attached together. This especially large slab was cut and polished by the Russian lapidary artist Nicolai Medvedev, to the highest degree of quality, for collector Bill Larson's personal library collection of malachite and polished pieces, and comes from that well known private collection in San Diego.