Rhodochrosite

Unknown Owner

Help improve this recordNo owner is registered for this specimen yet. If it's yours or you know more about it, you can add the owner, provenance, publications and other details.

This is an incredibly rare German piece! I have never seen such a good specimen for sale before from the Louise Mine, which is an entirely different district within the historic Rhineland region of Germany, from whence came far fewer rhodos than the famous Wolf Mine, in Herdorf. This mining area is, rather, known for its bournonite more than anything else. The specimen features translucent bundles of gem rhodochrosite crystals, to about 1 cm across. THey drape a 3-dimensional knoll of extremely high-contatn manganese ore matrix, and in fact a seam of massive rhodochrosite runs through internally as well, coming out on the back side. This is a gorgeous specimen that is really as close to German rhodo can come to a crystallographic style from the more modern N'Chwaning Mine known as "wheatsheaves." This is a gorgeous specimen, on its own aesthetic merit, aside from the valuable locality and historic significance.