Stibnite

Nowadays we are familiar with long individual bright silvery grey metallic bladed Stibnite crystals from China discovered in the 2000s, but even those are becoming harder to find. Prior to that, the world's largest crystals of Stibnite were from Ichinokawa mine in Japan where they were discovered during the late 1800s, with the mine continuing in production until 1962. The Japanese crystals were more commonly aggregated and joined, meaning that good long individual crystals were rare, or disfigured from where they had grown attached to others. Even larger aggregated specimens in museum collections usually present some form of contact damage, either from historic collecting methods or poor curation of a relatively soft metallic mineral. This rare high-quality individual crystal from Ichinokawa mine is over 21 cm in length and in stunning condition for this classic occurrence. It is a superb long metallic 'blade' with fantastic characterful grooves along its entire length and a prominent sharp sloping termination. It does have one 3 to 4 cm area where it appears to have been attached to another crystal along one upper edge, but otherwise it is absolute perfection. It is from David Hardman's fine collection and was probably acquired by him during the 1960s or 1970s and has been wonderfully cared for.

Unknown Owner

Product details

Species

Stibnite

SizeLarge Cabinet

Dimensions21.5 x 1.5 x 1.4 cm

Locality

Japan, Shikoku Island, Ichinokawa Mine

Added on05/21/2025

Comments

Known provenance

2025/06