Metacinnabar (best-of-species locale) Kay Robertson Coll.

Item Description

Metacinnabar is an uncommon polymorph of cinnabar. The world's finest examples of the species easily come from this well-known extinct Califorina mercury mine. Rounded, nubby, moderately lustrous, metallic-gray crystals, to 5 mm, are richly and attractively peppered on the small cabinet matrix wedge. A fine example of the species, that displays well without aid. Primary production was in the 1870s, with the last in 1930. A few were collected in the 1960s by field collectors poking around the old site, with none since of any quality I know of. This is simply one of the finest I have seen in collections, saved from all those years ago. Similar have sold for $1000-2000, inplates of smaller quality, as they are simply not on the market. Ex Gunnar Bjareby and Kay Robertson (# 5873) Collections. She acquired the piece in the late 1960s. Kay is a prominent California collector, who specialized in European classics (see the article in the March-April, 2007 Mineralogical Record).