Rhodochrosite

Unknown Owner

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Rhodochrosite from the old finds is one of the Holy Grails of every new major collector. This piece is a stunning exemplar of WHY we all want one. And it is big, flashy, and sparkles with color. The color is a bright cherry red, not the darker wine-red of the scalenohedral style most folks have already. This style is much rarer - and was much rarer back in the day, as well. Very few like this came out, and particularly few in this SIZE range. This would have been 1978-1980 range. This is the same pocket as the famous "Snail" rhodo of Bill Larson's collection. This specimen glows when backlit, because light comes through the entire radial wheatsheave cluster atop. It has a nice horizon, whereas most have a contacted or bare edge. A great N'chwaning rhodo of the scalenohedral style will be more expensive than this one, and yet here w get a better degree of rarity and uniqueness in display. This piece came to me as a larger specimen from an old collection purchased in entirety to get, largely, this one piece. It had remained in South Africa for 30 years, only comin gto me in fall of 2010.Joe Budd Photos