Name: Manganite (1880s find)
Brand: The Arkenstone
Price: 24500 USD
Availability: InStock

Manganite (1880s find)

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This find of the mid-1880s set the standard and still does, for the species of manganite, with large crystals from Germany being a hallmark of most major collections built in the early to late 1900s; and few on the market today. To date, nothing of near this quality has come from any other mine, for the species. I would say 130 years of modern mining is pretty good insurance on the issue of non-replication of something fine and rare. Luckily, China also has not produced any of note yet, and seems not to have big manganese deposits anyhow, leaving us safe to say that these old German specimens are still - and will always be - a gold standard of antique mineral collecting. That being said, we also want antiques that are beautiful and meet the modern eye for quality in aesthetics, which this does! This specimen has the ULTIMATE luster for a manganite from this or any other find, just shockingly bright and shiny. For me, this is the prime criteria to start ranking a Manganite specimen to the next level of quality, to the top tier. Next comes size, the crystal size here reaches 4.3 cm in height, characteristic of the larger range for specimens from this famous discovery in a single trench area in the mid 1880's. More than most, which are usually jumbly, they are unusually isolated, perched above smaller crystals and dominant in a central display. This specimen has a long history of collectors: From a time and history now lost in the fire that burned down the museum at the end of WWII, it was in the Budapest Museum. A number of major European collectors donated collections to the museum in the late 1800s and early 1900s, although we cannot say which now. An American collector and physicist named Hal Miller ended up with the piece, as part of a mineral collection gift from his Uncle (who was a mineral collector himself, and a soldier stationed in Europe at the time). Interestingly, Miller was a physicist who maintained a basement lab for nuclear physics after he retired from working on the Manhattan Project; and was often visited by major mineral collectors of the 1960s-1980s. He had a guest bed that famous dealers and collectors slept in while visiting the mineral room. Miller kept the piece and other classics for decades before selling them to Colorado collector Richard Kosnar in the late 1980s. Kosnar, who specialized in European classics himself, then kept the piece for over 20 years until he passed away in 2006 and it went to his wife and dealer/collector son, Brian Kosnar. In 2007, this was sold by the family, through me, to Dallas collector Wally Mann. This long treasured specimen remains a superlative example of one of the ultimate classics of mineral science and antique European mineral collecting lore, but importantly for us it also happens to be a piece that runs in line with modern aesthetics. The specimen is "black" only in the sense of a flat word that means nothing towards impact. It has to the eye, a color and a brilliance and a sparkle that transcends most every other example of this species I have seen (even ones that are much more expensive). Joe Budd Photo. The luster is so bright, and the piece 3-dimensional, that it is hard to photograph. Quite simply, one of the absolute best of these we have ever handled or seen in the size range, as witnessed by the previous owners.