Stibnite (large historic specimen)

Item Description

The world-famous Ichinokawa Mine in Japan for many years was the premier locality for Stibnite in the world. Specimens date back to the 1800s, and the entry on mindat.org states that the best specimens were found from 1875 to 1900, although the mine didn't close until 1962. Additionally, mindat also mentions that, "The mine produced the antimony used in the bronze casting of the Great Buddha of Nara in 748 AD". The Stibnites from this locality for over a century were considered the largest and finest examples of the species ever found, until they were at least matched if not surpassed by the equally impressive examples from the Wuning Mine in China. The crystals were not only large, but fine quality to boot, often seen in showy aesthetic display specimens. This piece is a striking large cabinet display piece loaded with dozens of dark steel-grey colored, striated metallic prisms, free of matrix. It's difficult to isolated a single crystal, but the largest one I could find (on the back of the specimen) measures 6.7 cm long. I will point out that a good percentage of the crystals are contacted on the terminations, which is not uncommon for this material, especially in pieces this size, but because it's a larger specimen and a significant 125+ year old antique, along with the visual appeal of the piece makes up for it in my mind. Specimens like this are few and far between on the market, and it's difficult to ascertain fair market value since they are so scarce, but I can say that the significance of the piece, both for its age and size make it a desirable and valuable example of this important historic material, arguably the most famous mineral specimens from any Japanese locality in history. For reference, this specimen was originally priced at $2,500 by Larry Conklin in 1995, and it's certainly worth well into the 5-figure range today.
Ex George Loud Collection No. 2211; 2821 JA.5. George (born August 16, 1942) is a well-known mineral collector from Washington, DC and South Carolina respectively, and was a patent lawyer by trade for over 50 years. He assembled one of the great mineral collections in the U.S., comprising worldwide specimens, and in later years he sold the worldwide specimens to focus on minerals of the United States, specifically locality suites with an emphasis on amazing representation of species while still maintaining fine quality. The specimens remarkably range from micros to all the way up to large cabinets in size. We recently acquired most of his impressive 9000+ piece 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 specimens for their collections.
See: https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/george-loud for more information