Malachite (stalactite slice)

Unknown Owner

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A rare stalactite slice of late-1800s, historic malachite, that would have come from the famous Bisbee Mine in its early days; and from the collection of the mine manager at the time!. This particular slice is unusually well preserved and complete. Polished expertly on both sides by master lapidary Bud Standley, who specializes in working with copper minerals. A native of Arizona, lapidary artist Bud Standley grew up near the copper mines. He learned to carve gemstones in 1971, at age 19; and did all the work for the Larson family when they obtained the Ben Williams Bisbee collection; and also for Wayne Thompson with Morenci azurite. Ben Williams became the General Manager of the Copper Queen from 1882 to 1889 and had a stunning personal collection that was only relatively recently brought to market by the Larson's circa 2000; after staying in a family descendant's attic for nearly a century. While they sold much of the collection at that time, this update features pieces from the Ben Williams collection, from the late 1800s, that were kept back another 2 decades in the collection of Bill Larson as a special suite. NOTE: this is the only such slice we obtained in the collection - such pieces were rare, even at the time they came out in the late 1800s. 65 grams.