Rhodochrosite with Fluorite (classic material)

Item Description

While the famous Sweet Home Mine is the most well-known locality for Rhodochrosite in Colorado, the Sunnyside Mine is certainly right behind in terms of popularity. In fact, for a long time the Sunnyside was THE premier locality for Rhodochrosite in Colorado before the Sweet Home was operated specifically for specimen recovery, starting in 1977 with Rich Kosnar and Dave Bergman. The one aspect of Sunnyside specimens that you don't see typically in Sweet Home pieces is the associated of green Fluorite. The combination of the pink rhombs of Rhodo and the green octahedrons of Fluorite is iconic. This piece is a gorgeous small cabinet filled with rich pink colored, sharp, well-formed rhombs of Rhodochrosite measuring up to about 6 mm, associated with very gemmy, sparkling, pale green complex octahedral groups of Fluorite measuring up to 7 mm, sitting on typical Quartz matrix. The Rhodos are a more saturated hue than most you'll find from this locality, which is especially noteworthy as the crystals are smaller than average and still have a beautiful rose color. No major damage, only a few small imperfections, and the piece just jumps out at you with the eye-catching combo of pink and green.
Valued $5,000-$6,000
The piece was originally in the collection of Brooks Davis and later was in the Smithsonian (#125651 - label included) and was sold to Jack by one of his favorite dealers, Walt Lidstrom.
From the collection of Jack Halpern No. 1121 . Jack was born May 18, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York, but has been a long-time resident of San Francisco. He assembled one of the great mineral collections in the world encompassing over 3,200 specimens with a specific emphasis on color, quality, and style/aesthetics, which is evident in every piece. He admired specimens of all sizes from thumbnails to large cabinets and the vast majority of them rank from fine to world-class in their quality.
Above all else, Jack is considered to be the greatest gentleman in the modern era of mineral collecting. He is beloved by all those who have met him, and he truly is one of the most iconic figures in the mineral world. We recently acquired Jack's collection, and the VAST majority of these pieces will be offered here in the auctions, as we feel that everyone deserves and equal opportunity at acquiring these important, well-documented and fine quality pieces for their collections. We are honored to have the opportunity to offer Jack's treasures to everyone on a regular basis in the auctions.
We encourage you to read our blog post at https://www.irocks.com/the-jack-halpern-collection or his profile on the Mineralogical Record website https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/halpernjack/ for more information