Cinnabar on Quartz with Dolomite (1990s) - image 1

Cinnabar on Quartz with Dolomite (1990s) - image 2

Cinnabar on Quartz with Dolomite (1990s) - image 4

Cinnabar on Quartz with Dolomite (1990s)

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An important large cinnabar display specimen featuring a sharp, vertically standing, complete all around, dramatic cinnabar crystal that is shown here perfectly perched on a sparkling matrix plate! This is old material, from the 1990s finds, and such size has generally not been found since except on rare occasions. We first had the specimen in exchange from Steve Smale (he had so much old Chinese material stashed from his years as a professor at University of Hong Kong in the 1990s), sold it and got it back twice over the last 20 years or so. I ended up keeping it in my personal Chinese collection for some years until now, as well, for the display quality and overall size of the plate. The crystal is sharply twinned and 3.3 cm tall. This is a so-called "Drillbit Twin" style. Before COVID, we actually went to this region of Hunan and were not allowed to go into the mine area, as it was closed and scheduled for reclamation. No more will be found here. Most modern production of cinnabar specimens and also the raw material used for jewelry and traditional Chinese medicine is, instead, from a more recent mine in Guizhou - which is in a different province entirely, to the confusion of many westerners. This is quite different - OLD Hunan material, as evidenced by the style and association.