THE VAULT
This is a special section of the website dedicated to very significant, admittedly pricier, specimens in context. Many of these minerals find homes with collectors who not only enjoy the beauty of fine minerals, but also treat their collections as valuable alternative investments.
- GEM19-16
- Imperial Topaz
- Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil
- Small Cabinet, 8.8 x 2.1 x 1.4 cm
- $35,000.00
Topaz from this small district in Brazil has a unique shape and color. Some of these Imperial Topaz crystals have a "style" to them that, for color and pizzazz, puts them above others. This is one such, with the richest color and sparkle. Truly glassy and gemmy, this 'imperial topaz" crystal exhibits a beautiful orange color. But when a light source at the base of the crystal illuminates it, the termination is electrified by an intense, neon reddish orange glow. The mass is 48 grams.
- TUC18-37
- Emerald
- near Kenticha, Oromia, Ethiopia
- Miniature, 4.5 x 3.2 x 2.6 cm
- $35,000.00
One of the biggest crystals recovered from 2015-2016 excavations in Ethiopia! Better in person, this looks stunning in a showcase! Surprisingly, this large, doubly terminated, lustrous and translucent, emerald crystal is from Ethiopia. It exhibits an intense, deep green color saturation. The gem mass is 72 grams. We are proud to present some of the most affordable and intensely saturated emerald crystals of quality, found in a long time.
- TUC18-40
- Beryl var. Heliodor
- Bolangir, Orissa State, India
- Cabinet, 16.5 x 3.2 x 2.7 cm
- $37,500.00
Fine, large, heliodor crystals, such as this one, are rarely seen these days from anywhere except the typical style from Ukraine. This intensely yellow gem crystal is, however, from India. The light colored inclusions are clay and add to the beauty of the specimen as well as making it distinct in appearance from Ukrainian material. The color is also a more pure yellow. Luster is insane! The mass is 233 grams.
- VLT-27
- Kunzite
- Pech, Kunar Province, Afghanistan
- Large Cabinet, 54.0 x 12.0 x 8.6 cm (appro x 0.2 feet)
- Request Price
weight: 29.4 pounds. Perhaps one of the world's largest crystals for the species! It is complete all around, and with remarkably little etching effects given the size of the crystal. It is nearly entirely gemmy, especially in the center. The tip just glows with purple and maroon hues, with any kind of good lighting, especially when light comes down the c-axis. For the remarkably equant and sharp termination, this would be major anyhow for the species, even if it were small (most have etched terminations as the sizes get longer, not as attractive to my eye).
- RH18-10
- Rhodochrosite on Quartz and Tetrahedrite
- Sweet Home Mine, Alma, Park County, Colorado, USA
- Small Cabinet, 8.3 x 6.4 x 5.7 cm
- $40,000.00
Nestled aesthetically in a shallow quartz vug are lustrous and translucent rhombs of CHERRY-red rhodochrosite, highlighted by a crystal 2.4 cm across. This is a crystal over one inch of the best color - not rose or strawberry colored, but a real cherry-red. It has a sharp form and has no restoration or repair, as so many in this size do. Small crystals of colorless quartz and sulfides add contrast to the major crystal, which sits so perfectly in its well-trimmed matrix! This is a major Sweet Home rhodo by any standards for a small cabinet specimen, and would date from the tetrahedrite stope mining in this mine, in the late 1990s. Such specimens are simply not available with all the attributes this piece has of aesthetics, condition, color, and luster - most fail in one or more.
- GEM23-15
- Spessartine Garnet on Albite with Schorl
- Little Three Mine, Ramona, Ramona Mining Dist., San Diego Co., California, USA
- Small Cabinet, 6.0 x 4.2 x 3.8 cm
- $45,000.00
This is a significant and classic Little Three Mine Spessartine Garnet, dating to the Louis Spalding Sr. era of mining when the best of these were produced from this small mine in a remote part of San Diego County (late 1960s into the early 1970s). It was then in the collection of Bryant Harris, who almost certainly participated in the mining as well. This is a fantastic specimen of San Diego garnet, super rare compared to spessartine from any other country's finds, as it features the famous combination from the mine: one large, vivid orange crystal on a stark white Albite matrix combined with a single, contrasting black Schorl crystal. The big, 3.3 cm, lustrous and colorful Spessartine is gemmy to translucent and contrasts well with the white Albite matrix and a small, black Schorl Tourmaline crystal. The Spessartine crystal is is placed nicely on the piece to show of its color, dodecahedral crystal form and gemminess.
- LBC23-65
- Beryl var. Aquamarine (published in 1970)
- Marambaia, Carai, Minas Gerais, Brazil
- Cabinet, 14.8 x 5.8 x 4.8 cm
- $40,000.00
Before discoveries in Pakistan, Brazil was THE world source of fine and amazing aquamarines in large size. However, after the last 30 years or so since Pakistani production came to market, many Brazilian aquamarines have been looked on by collectors as less impressive than modern material. Not so with this piece, a huge, impactful specimen of really rather shocking size and color saturation, from the old Brazilian finds. It is 739 grams - 1.7 pounds in weight! This piece is a deeply colored, saturated cluster, itself rare both then and now from Brazil. The color is different from Pakistani material, a blue with a slight tint of green to it (referred to at the time as seafoam blue color).
- SM22-71
- Fluorite
- Huanggang Mines, Hexigten Banner, Inner Mongolia A.R. China
- Small Cabinet, 9.3 x 8.6 x 7.9 cm
- $35,000.00
This is a really impactful aesthetic red-pink Fluorite crystal from the famous Huanggang Mines of China, the Red Pocket of August 2019. This gorgeous, gem, red-pink crystal is a near textbook octahedron measuring a full 9 cm from tip to tip. This razor sharp Fluorite octahedron is gemmy all the way through and exhibits an almost glassy luster, considerably different from the majority of pieces from this find. It also has an incomplete halo of Fluorite octahedrons around the middle that have a similar character to the large crystal and they vary in size from 0.6 to 1.6 cm on edge and add to the aesthetics of the piece. The red-pink color and the gemminess of this piece is just astounding! The top of the octahedron is transparent and one can see right down and through the crystal in most areas.
- LBC23-66
- Beryl var. Heliodor
- Khoroshiv Raion, Zhytomyr Raion, Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine
- Cabinet, 15.1 x 3.7 x 3.0 cm
- $35,000.00
Ukrainian heliodors are unique in the world not just for the amazing golden color, but for the mesmerizing surface patterning. This stunning gem crystal has both, and also an unusual feature at the termination that we have not seen before - and explains why it was long kept in the beryl collection of Bill Larson (on display for decades in his store in Fallbrook, CA). First of all, the piece has the best color - a deep saturated and sparkling golden yellow without too much green tone. It also has the best luster - like wet glass. It is not just "gemmy" but it is fully and completely transparent, literally gem rough. It has the amazing surface patterns you want in one of these.
- RH18-09
- Rhodochrosite with Fluorite
- Wutong Mine, Liubao, Cangwu Co., Guangxi Zhuang A.R., China
- Cabinet, 13.2 x 11.2 x 3.9 cm
- $32,500.00
This is a SIGNIFICANT rhodochrosite from China, and one of the largest single "lobster tails" as the Chinese miners called them at the time. Isolated crystals like this, a floater no less - were extremely rare! This is in excellent condition and literally glows when backlit, for a rich cherry-red color on the shelf. The specimen is a floater - complete all around with no point of attachment. Showy and dramatic! This dates from 2010 or so, and no more this quality have been found since.
- PERU22-15
- Augelite on Quartz
- Mundo Nuevo Mine, Huamachuco, La Libertad Dept., Peru
- Small Cabinet, 9.5 x 6.6 x 5.8 cm
- $30,000.00
This is obviously a fabulous and very dramatic cabinet combination specimen of Augelite on Quartz from the great finds at the Mundo Nuevo Mine in Peru in 2005-2006. This location produced best of species material, unquestionably, at the time - and we bought most available specimens of large size and importance at that time they came out. This was pulled out, as a large piece that required years to trim down to size, and we recently reacquired it. It has one of the largest intact matrix crystals known for the species, a beautiful phosphate. Well over a dozen glassy and gemmy, bright green Augelite crystals from 1.5 to an amazing 3.75 cm in length are distributed strategically on the sparkling blanket of Quartz crystals to produce a well-balanced and very aesthetic specimen! The Augelites are positioned between and on top of the lustrous Quartz crystals that vary in size from 1 to 2 cm in length and have nice pointed terminations.
- SM23-47
- Titanite
- Capelinha, Minas Gerais, Brazil
- Cabinet, 13.9 x 8.9 x 2.5 cm
- $30,000.00
This is a huge, gorgeous, sharply formed, twinned, very colorful Titanite from arguably the best historical locality in the world for large crystals of the species! It measures 5.5 inches from tip to tip and 1 inch in width - which is monumental for the species! It's other attributes are just as amazing, with a gorgeous green to green-yellow color, incredible glassy luster, large total gem areas and of course its conspicuous fishtail twinning right down the front of the crystal as a deep and pronounced V-shaped furrow! A commanding and impressive crystal. I personally believe that this deposit has produced the finest and largest Titanite specimens ever found. For sheer size and perfection of form, these are breathtaking and this is no exception!
- SZ22-21
- Pink Fluorite
- Goscheneralp, Goschenen Valley, Uri, Switzerland
- Cabinet, 10.0 x 10.0 x 7.8 cm
- $45,000.00
A single massive and very deeply colored fluorite crystal, of what you could charitably call "unusual size" for the location! However, it is more than just big: The color is incredibly saturated and rich, which is particularly uncommon in crystals of such size here. The color is definitely a more dark red-maroon than the typical pink and pinkish hues we normally associated with both Swiss and French material. In fact, the color is much more intense than Pakistani pink fluorites as well, which do get this size although not with such color, so it has to be among the world's larger examples of the color in this size range. Historically rare, more do turn up time to time (the glaciers recede due to climate change, which actually helps expose new finds every few years, it seems), but again they are generally more pink and of slightly different habit as well. This is an octahedron, of course, but it has interesting surface features that also differentiate it from other modern finds.
- STOUDT-09
- Legrandite
- Ojuela Mine, Mapimi, Durango, Mexico
- Small Cabinet, 6.4 x 4.6 x 3.2 cm
- $46,500.00
Legrandite is the Holy Grail of collecting rare species, for many people. Few large matrix specimens exist to be had, and of them, nearly all are in museums or private collections that are not selling anytime soon, now. This dramatic cluster hangs off the matrix, fully exposed and perched on contrasting gossan matrix. It looks good either side up and sideways, too! The cluster is 3.5 cm across. Individual crystals longwise are to 3 cm.
- D10-02
- Silver (Circa 1800S) Ex. Bally Museum
- Himmelsfurt Mine, Saxony, Germany
- Large Cabinet, 18.0 x 4.0 x 3.0 cm
- Request Price
This majestic large silver specimen is both elegant in form for the collector and significant for its size and impact. Wires of this thickness and size are very rare survivors of the heyday of these famous silver mines, quite visually distinct from recent material that came out around 2000-2002 from a modern find in the old tunnels of the linked mines of this district. It was found in the 1800s and was in the Bally Museum in Switzerland by the early 1900s. With the dissolution of that museum, it then went into the major private collection of Eric Asselborn, and then to Brent Lockhart in 2010. The Munich Show organizers requested to borrow it for their show exhibits in 2013 themed "European Treasures." This silver also won the Best of Theme award for its size class, in 2015 at the TGMS show, for the theme of "Minerals of Western Europe." To win Best Cabinet sized mineral in the year of a theme like that, with so much competition, says something. In 2016, it was exhibited in Lockhart's Desautels-winning case at TGMS. This piece has style, not just size.
- VAULT21-01
- Emerald With Calcite
- Coscuez Mine, Boyaca Dept., Colombia
- Small Cabinet, 5.5 x 4.6 x 4.1 cm
- Request Price
An exquisite emerald specimen, simply "different" to my eye than so many others. It has a very castellated, complex multiple termination that to me looks like towers out of a fantasy movie made of gemmy green emerald. The color is a vivid, bright hue. Some collectors prefer darker colors, some lighter shades, and this is somewhere in between; and very vibrant for it. You can see the piece shimmering from across the room, as it also has sparkly luster on both the calcite and the emerald associations. The piece is beautifully trimmed, to accentuate the 3-dimensionality of the emerald and of the adjacent twinned calcite, atop.
- HALP-23
- Rhodochrosite on Manganite
- N'Chwaning I Mine, Kuruman, Kalahari manganese fields, Northern Cape Province, South Africa
- Small Cabinet, 7.5 x 6.1 x 2.9 cm
- $35,000.00
From the late 1970s, this is a very rare and desirable style of rhodochrosite we called "shields" in habit, that have never been found again since. The crystals feature a "flattish habit with a dominant pinacoid" according to the article in the 1978 issue of Mineralogical Record when the discovery was reported. This is a large, dramatic piece, free of damage except only on one peripheral crystal contact. It displays upright and very 3-dimensional; and glows a pure cherry red when backlit with light. It is featured in a small print-run book on the Halpern Collection called "The Reds and the Golds," 2010. Jack obtained it in 1984 from a well-known dealership that took Dr.
- GOLD21-02
- Gold
- Pontes e Lacerda, Mato Grosso, Brazil
- Small Cabinet, 6.6 x 2.5 x 1.7 cm
- $40,000.00
A spectacular tree-like, thick and robust crystallized gold from this important modern-era find from a few years ago. The first golds were actually imported as lapidary and gem material, and now it is not possible to export specimens, or to mine new ones as the zone is under control of a large gold mining corporation. This will be remembered as one of the major crystallized gold finds of a century, and the color and shape make them dramatic. Hefty, weighing in at 57 grams.
- JB17-1961
- Scheelite with Cassiterite
- Mt Xuebaoding, Pingwu, Pingwu Co., Sichuan Province, China
- Cabinet, 11.0 x 11.0 x 8.0 cm
- Request Price
Scheelite from this now-diminished mine near the famous Panda Preserve in China simply is, beyond any question, the gold standard for the species. I have followed these for 20 years, since the mid-1990s, and they got better for awhile and then tapered off suddenly after the big earthquake of 2008. The mine is remote, and dynamite is not allowed. Just accessing the mine site is enormously difficult, and at high altitude with no good roads, even before the quake... Now, it is nearly unreachable. Once a tungsten mine under military economic priorities, it has lost importance and now it is worked artisanally, and with increasing difficulty.
- JB17-1899
- Azurite with Malachite
- Milpillas Mine, Sonora, Mexico
- Small Cabinet, 9.2 x 6.0 x 4.8 cm
- Request Price
Milpilas flowed azurite, and then flowed some more when we thought the oxidation zone would not give up more (watercourse pocket going down into the oxidized orebody), and then finally came to a crashing end for supply of the worl'ds best and most prolific azurite finds in all of history. Nevertheless, amongst the crowd of azurites so good that everybody can now own a great azurite in any price range, there are special things that stand out. This is such a piece: I stashed this piece in 2012, from a special 2011 or 2012 pocket I loved with these robust, 3-dimensional crystals that looked more like Tsumeb azurites (but more blue), than the typical Milpillas styles to date. The crystal is 6.0 x 3.0 x 2.5 cm and stands proud and dramatically upon a white matrix with a little wreathe of smaller, slender crystals at its base, like a birds nest. The crystal is undamaged and pristine, and has fantastic color. It shows some partial alteration to malachite, particularly on 2 faces.
- JB17-1887
- Pentagonite on Stilbite
- Wagholi Quarries, Wagholi, Pune District, Maharashtra, India
- Small Cabinet, 8.0 x 6.8 x 5.0 cm
- $20,000.00
Pentagonite is the much more rare cousin of cavansite, technically a "dimorph" which means that it is the same chemistry but a different crystal habit, and therefore a different species. The color is equally good, but the sparkly luster on pentagonites at their best is better than most cavansite. The species is found at a ratio of about 1 pentagonite to 1000 cavansites at these rich quarries in India and simply nowhere else in good showy form. Usually, pentagonite of 1-2 cm is considered quite good, and some 2-4 cm floater clusters were found in the past. This specimen features a "tree" of crystals standing 6 cm tall on contrasting white matrix! I have never seen a cluster of the species of this size, so perfectly displayed, intact and undamaged.
- JB17-1994
- Tourmaline (bicolor gem)
- Cruzeiro Mine, Minas Gerais, Brazil
- Gems and Jewelry, 25 x 17 x 13 mm; 39.03 cts
- $22,500.00
Cruzeiro has produced what surely are the most saturated, fanciest color bicolor tourmaline gems, over the years. This is from an old collection, and was mined and cut in the 1990's. It is a superbly cut modified cushion with an art cut on the bottom. The cutting is high quality, and the luster is absolutely top tier. From the collection of former Pro football player, gem collector, entrepreneur, and mineral collector, Ron Gladnick. Joe Budd photos.
- JB16-1574
- Brazilianite
- Conselheiro Pena, Doce Valley, Minas Gerais, Brazil
- Small Cabinet, 8.0 x 6.3 x 4.0 cm
- $13,500.00
Brazilianite from the old 1930s-1940s finds here STILL sets the standard, to this day, nearly 80 years later. These brazilianites have a depth of color, a high luster, and a unique crystal habit that completely differentiates them from more modern material found in other localities in Brazil. This is a huge crystal for the old finds, featuring a 6 x 5 x 4 cm crystal perched atop a smaller one. It displays very dramatically as a vertical piece, with the gemmiest tip facing out to the viewer and the natural contact (bottom of the crystal, where it grew on matrix) pointing to the back; and thus is complete on three sides. It can also display well horizontally, with the gemmiest tip facing up and the growth contact on bottom. Minor muscovite is included in one side of the crystal.
- JB16-1720
- Apatite
- Panasquiera Mine, Barroca Grande, Covilha, Castelo Branco District, Portugal
- Small Cabinet, 7.8 x 7.1 x 3.6 cm
- $7,500.00
A significant apatite from the most important European locale: Apatite from the Panasqueira Mine is justly famous as among the best examples of the species. Crystals like this one, showing the phantom inside a green core and the textbook shape of the crystal, have long been considered among the top European classics. This crystal is HUGE for the locality, and for this style, with a mass of 286 grams. It is largely complete all around. It is complete on the sides and back of the termination, with only small contact on the rear-left edge and at the bottom where it grew. It has muscovite coating a part of the bottom backside, and was almost a floater.
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