Name: Rhodochrosite
Brand: The Arkenstone
Price: 14500 USD
Availability: InStock

Rhodochrosite

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This specimen is "The Minette N'Chwaning" thumbnail, a specimen that would have been mined in the early 1980s and soon landed in the most prominent publicly-shown and known thumbnail collection of its era, that of Jim and Dawn Minette in California. Widely exhibited and written up (including a book, The Minette Collection, available in some old libraries now). While many "small" rhodochrosites from this find exist, only a few transcend the average specimen of single points or clusters between 1-2 cm, often with all damaged tips. Even with damaged tips, which was very typical for this find, they seem to sell. However, the ultimate competitive-thumbnail collectors had very little to choose from, even at the time they came out! Even when they were abundant, truly perfect thumbnails of this full TN size (a "boxbuster") were uncommon in good quality and condition. This crystal is 3.2 cm tall, radiant with brightness inside and out (and many do not have this internal brilliance). It is sharp, balanced, and has some smaller crystals accenting the pristine main crystal. Only one of the small sidecars has a small cleaved tip on close inspection, the others being pristine as well. This is more volumetric and space filling than most, and is really a small miniature that can barely fit in a regulation TN competition box. These old classics have an impact beyond their size; and add a heft and importance to any competitive-thumbnail suite by the provenance combined with quality. To obtain now in this era, not only a high level specimen but one of the few judged of the highest caliber at the time they came out (as witnessed by the Minette's acquisition), is a rare generational opportunity that only comes as a few older collections built from the 60s-90s are dispersed. We obtained this in the Minette dispersal in the early 2000s and sold it to Wayne Thompson at the time, for his TN/Mini collection built with his daughter, Stevia. It has had only two owners, therefore, since around 1980. Laszlo Kupi photo.