Rhodochrosite (famous 2007 find) ex Halpern Coll

Item Description

This is a stunning, 3-dimensional Chinese rhodochrosite specimen from a discovery that was a shock when it was found, and then burned out - with such fine specimens never seen since. While most Chinese rhodochrosite specimens simply cannot hodl their own compared to African or Colorado material, a few particular pockets at this remote location produced amazing specimens for a very few years in 2007-2008. This was one of Jack's major Tucson purchases, the year they premiered. He went for what he believed to be the most aesthetic specimen without damage, with solid red color (as most had a variegated color or had gray areas); and most importantly for Jack, he wanted one of the few with the shape of a flower. Jack is one of the world's great experts on cultivating Orchids, and was multiple times the President of the San Francisco Orchid Society (see this fascinating article on him with amazing quotes from Jack at the end : https://www.sfgate.com/homeandgarden/article/Orchids-A-lifelong-love-Orchid-show-this-2633765.php. An orchid species was named in his honor as well: Cymbidium Jack Halpern. So, this has remained with Jack for nearly 15 years, and the find has come and gone and will be remembered as the greatest Rhodo discovery in China. While there are larger, there are not specimens more elegant than this one in the size range (perfectly at 4 inches....a small cabinet or a large small cabinet, so to speak). It is 360 degrees and complete all around. These came through one dealer at the time, which ran their own prep laboratory on them. Repaired pieces were labelled as repaired, carefully. This does not have that label, and it is hard to see how it would have been repaired smoothly in such a complex cluster; but we do believe the back of the left wing of rhodochrosite here to be stabilized at a hairline crack and thus will label this as "stabillized" but not repaired to he best of our knowledge (or Jack's, he was told it was not). This is a phenomenal specimen for the size, which is ideal to so many collectors. Nothing like this is available in China today, nor frankly on the USA market. We saw only one recently that was larger, although not as aesthetic, and multiple repaired, for nearly $20,000. This present specimen should easily be valued in the $15-20k range, although it is really difficult to find comparables today.