Orpiment coating Realgar (ex Tom Campbell Collection)

Item Description

A really showy and good quality specimen of the famous Orpiment / Realgar specimens from the Palomo Mine in Peru. These are almost certainly the largest and finest quality Realgar crystals from Peru, if not all of South America. This aesthetic miniature hosts several fine quality prismatic crystals of glowing ruby red Realgar which have partially altered to a soft powdery yellow Orpiment on the surface sitting atop a matrix of dark brown Sphalerite with grey colored Quartz (Chalcedony). If you look closely, you can see the red of the Realgar poking out from the edges of a couple of the crystals. The largest crystal on the piece measures 1.9 cm long, and they are aesthetically intergrown to create a showy display specimen. Very little damage, and really attractive from several angles. These pieces came out several years ago, and nothing like them has been found since. From the worldwide collection of Tom Campbell. Tom is a mineralogist and mineral collect who works with us here at The Arkenstone. He has over 35 years of experience in the fields of exploration geology, mining, and applied mineralogy, and has even more years under his belt as a collector! Tom has described many new species over the years, and discovered the rare phosphates Tiptopite, Fransoletite and Pahasapaite. Tom was also a co-author on the second edition of the Encyclopedia of Minerals. You can see a list of Tom's published works here ( https://www.irocks.com/thomas-j-campbell-publications-list ).