Turquoise pseudomorph after Apatite

Item Description

This locality has produced fairly large amounts of massive Turquoise, which for many years was mined and then ground into a powder, combined with plaster and sold as "reconstituted" Turquoise that was polished and set into jewelry. The miners who were collecting these pieces were completely unaware of the value in a specimen like this, which would have met the same fate as many before it, had we not intervened and liberated it from the crusher. I'm sure many of you are familiar with the classic pseudomorphs of Turquoise replacing Apatite from various localities in Sonora, Mexico, but these monster specimens from China have set a new standard for this beautiful and hard to find material. This piece is a very good example of these odd pseudomorphs where one phosphate species replaced another. In this case Turquoise has completely taken over a preexisting crystal of Apatite while still preserving the original hexagonal shape and tapered pyramidal habit. The bright glowing blue color along with the well-preserved, fairly sharp crystal faces makes for an excellent big showy display piece of what are clearly the best examples of this material ever found. Valued at $1,500 for size, quality and the fact that the best examples have set a new standard for these rare pseudomorphs.