Pyrrhotite & Galena ex Ed David collection

Item Description

Pyrrhotite from Dalnegorsk has long been considered the best of species, especially in large size. It is one of the absolute classics for the mines there, and really great pieces came out in the 1980s to early 1990s, not since. This specimen was a well-known piece in the community at the time I bought the collection of Dr. Ed David, in New Jersey, which Fran Allegra was familiar with from his own visits there. It features a rosette of crystals 10 cm wide, featuring a vertical crystal to 9 cm across, perched dramatically on a gorgeous and sparkling matrix of sulfides (galena and chalcopyrite mixed with quartz for accent and contrast). Interestingly, Ed had been Nixon's White House Science Chief, among his many other roles in industry, government, and NASA - as well as one of the most gregarious and prominent mineral collectors in the world for decades. Ed built several major collections, and he always prized world class examples of metallic species and rarity over more common "pretties" in his mind. He loved Dalnegorsk and got in early when material started coming out in the 1980s to the Western markets. Fran Allegra felt the same way, but for reasons of space and budget had to restrict his collection to one major purchase per year, and to what would fit in the display cases at the judges chambers in the Old Red Brick building across from the White House, where he kept his mineral collection (under security paid for by us, the USA taxpayer! I made the mistake once of bringing an Autunite, highly radioactive, and got stopped at the entry until Fran came down and rescued me from the police). Fran therefore decided to focus on Dalnegorsk, inspired by Ed and others. He thought he could carefully and slowly build a significant Dalnegorsk suite, and worked to do so with his once-per-year purchasing plan. When I bought Ed David's collection, this was Fran's top choice out of 2000 specimens and was held for him at the time (2005 or 2006). Ed had related to me that he obtained this piece in the early 1990s and it had been (according to his dealer/supplier Herb Obodda, whom I would certainly trust) in the collection of the most famous Russian collector, Vladimir Pelepenko. Pelepenko was the FIRST Soviet collector to exhibit his incredible specimens in the West at the 1988 Munich Show and was probably the leading private mineral collector in the Soviet Union at that time. All of his many specimens were of amazing quality, not seen previously in the West. See the 1989 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 20, No.1 for the 1988 Munich Show report for more details of this exceptional collection. It is extremely RARE to obtain older Russian specimens today of this TOP quality, whether from the Pelepenko Collection or not. Many of us considered this one of the better examples of the species then, and it remains so. It is valued $20-25,000. It is truly a special example for quality, size, aesthetics, and the provenance is simply a bonus to its own merits. Comes with a custom lucite base.