Vivianite ex. Freilich & Ed David collections

Item Description

This specimen has TWO crossing crystal clusters forming an X shape. The frontal composite-crystal is 14 x 7 x 4 cm in size. The back crystal is doubly-terminated, elegant and thinner, but gemmier; also with a deep green color when backlit strongly. The luster is fantastic, like glass, on all front faces. The piece is complete all around and pristine, save only one small contact at the lower tip of the front of the specimen. For the size, the condition is scary good - you seldom see them this big without cleaves or dings. The mass is 850 grams. Vivanite from the 1980s find shere still sets the standard for sheer size and impact, for the species. True, other locales and styles are more gemmy or elegant, but no other finds present the sheer mass of vivianite, and these huge, frontal, lustrous faces. They remain classics, no seldom seen on the market. This particular specimen is a piece from those classic days, that I have known about for a decade or so, after it turned up again in the late 1990s in the Freilich collection which was exhibited in Tucson at 2000 show. When that noted collection was broken up for sale, at auction in 2001, this was item #253 in the Sotheby's catalogue for the collection. The value given was $3500-4500 in 2001 and frankly I think that was low, but it was an economic downturn and the sale had to happen quickly. It sold at auction, and then ended up by 2003 in the Ed David collection, in New Jersey, and now has his #54C attached. Dr. David was presidential science advisor to Nixon and head of the White House Science Offices, amongst his other positions and life-long collecting of minerals. I purchased that collection in 2005 and valued this specimen at $7500. I think certainly a range of $6000-7500 to be fair, given the magnitude of the piece, pedigree/history aside.