Name: Malachite ps. Torbernite
Brand: The Arkenstone
Price: 4500 USD
Availability: InStock

Malachite ps. Torbernite

It's fairly difficult to find a pseudomorph that surprises us for rarity, that is also beautiful and cabinet sized! Malachite after torbernite pseudomorphs from the Katanga Copper Crescent area of the DRC are incredibly rare on the market even as small pieces, as so few ever existed, and they are thought to date to the 1960s-1970s. This particular and rather large specimen is the largest we know of, and dates back to the famous pseudomorph collection of legendary collector and mine owner Ed Swoboda (built in the 40s-80s), after which it went to the equally notable collection of Ed David (and then to us, in 2005; and we sold it to Stretch right away - so 3 owners in 50-ish years). This matrix specimen features a rarely seen occurrence of rich green malachite completely replacing torbernite, and presumably metatorbernite as a subsequent pseudomorph of the original torbernite. It is a very textural and architecturally interesting pseudomorph featuring a roughly cubic vug lined with tabular, squarish pseudomorphs that represent malachite displacing the original torbernite. These run from 0.5 to 1 cm in size, some displaying a sparkly coating of very fine malachite crystals. The entire piece represents a "boxwork" of what is now malachite that has replaced all of the original mineralogy leaving thin septae of malachite that are in a boxy or angular pattern also shoring patches of tiny, less than 1 mm malachite crystals. A handsome, rare and interesting piece mined decades ago circa the 1970s. Illustrated in Collecting Pseudomorphs: The Changelings of Mineralogy (Mineralogical Record, Jan 2025) on page 82. Also illustrated in ExtraLapis #43: Pseudomorphs. Laszlo Kupi photo.

$4,500.00