Pyromorphite (rare color for locale)

Item Description

This is a beautiful plate of lustrous, colorful, orange to yellow, barrel-shaped crystals of Pyromorphite from this classic French locality. The Pyromorphite crystals occur as two generations, an earlier yellow-green set of crystals from 1 to 3mm on the left side of the piece followed a later generation of larger orange crystals that range in size from 3 to 8mm that are heavily distributed on the right side and on the angled ridge on that side. There must be close to 100 crystals total on this piece! The color contrast is striking both between the two generations of Pyromorphite crystals and between them and the gray, silicified matrix. This is a rare color combo for Pyromorphite from this definitive French locality! The crystals are in excellent condition as you can see from the high resolution photos even around the periphery! There are only a couple of compromised crystals on the piece that aren’t noticeable since they are truncated at the base and are the same color as the adjacent crystals. The lack of any significant crystal damages on this piece is unusual for Les Farges pieces as most show visible and obvious damage. The back shows that it has been sawed from a larger piece to improve display ability. A great piece with great color from an old, classic locale, and we have only seen comparable specimens very rarely at shows in Europe, generally valued in the $3000-5000 range.. This probably dates to the 1980s. From the noted European and worldwide collection of Kurt Hefendehl