Vanadinite

Unknown Owner

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The Apex Mine is a small, relatively unknown locality to many collectors. Yet, for brief periods in the early 1900s and again in the 1930s-1952, it produced some of the finest vanadinite in the Southwest (more information can be found in the MEXICO V issue of the Mineralogical Record). Most are small pieces, and many are lost to the damages of time. A cabinet specimen like this should be considered extremely rare and hard to own. This is a very aesthetic cluster of branching crystals, arranged like a flower with larger crystals to 2 cm forming a core cluster, right in the middle. It has habit, color, and a flowing style that clearly stands out from pieces found at other vanadinite locales. This specimen from the Dr Miguel Romero collection was exchanged out of the Romero collection to a fellow collector, before the remainder of the Romero collection went on loan exhibition to the University of Arizona Museum. Romero traded it to Evan Jones, a fellow collector of Mexican classics, in the early 1990s. I obtained it from Evan by exchange in 2007, apart from my upcoming purchase of the Romero collection, and held for this release. Comes with custom lucite base already made for the specimen. Labels for both Romero and Jones are with the piece.