Rhodochrosite with Quartz (illustrated)

Item Description

Choice, sharp, gemmy, lustrous crystals to just over 1 cm across form an aesthetic and rich arrangement on a sparing rock matrix, accented with quartz. This is just a classic from the 1990s-era finds here. If not Hedgehog Pocket, it is from something similar in that time. The contrast of the quartz and the rhodo is part of the beauty here, as is the overall shape and richness. The crystals are a nice medium-strawberry color, and razor sharp. They are gemmy, translucent to transparent. Unlike many modern specimens, they are not labbed and restored or repaired as needed, but entirely natural in appearance and surface shape and luster. This is a fine example in the size range! It came from the collection of Vancouver based collector John Dagenais (Dagenaisite), and was illustrated in the Mineralogical Record, in 2019, in a section on his collection of worldwide minerals. Modern specimens of any comparable kind of quality from the nearby mine going into the back of the deposit, would easily sell for six figures with the dealers currently mining and marketing such things. This, however, is an old classic, from the glory years (tracked and numbered #2485 on the back, which is indeed from the mid 1990s).