Name: Pyromorphite ps. Cerussite
Brand: The Arkenstone
Price: 6000 USD
Availability: InStock

Pyromorphite ps. Cerussite

Superb and aesthetic, this rare replacement of pyromorphite after cerussite from Daoping is incredibly interesting and has a huge amount of eye appeal! The pyromorphite has a lovely and uniform green color with some pale orange highlights in places, and the surface just sparkles from microcrystalline pyromorphite. There is one large, 2.2 cm (1 inch!) prismatic, former cerussite crystal centered on this excellent miniature that has been replaced by pyromorphite along with a couple of small sidecar crystals that are probably reticulated twin components on either side of the larger crystal. The septae of matrix were probably also cerussite, as well as nearly a dozen other smaller (less than 1 cm) crystals, which are now all pyromorphite. The rest of the piece just sparkles with a plethora of tiny (1 to 2.5 mm) bright green pyromorphites that are slender prismatic, hexagonal prisms that represent a secondary growth probably just after the pseudomorphing event. These visuals serve to enhance the sharp casts after the original cerussite crystals, some of which are hollow! I have not seen but a handful of these from a one-time find from this locality, of which this is one of the two best that I know of (and we sold it to the Young Collection circa 2007 when it came out of the Ken Roberts personal collection). Ken had been travelling around China even before my time and secretly built a superb collection of small cabinet-sized China minerals, and a sub-suite of pseudomorphs, worldwide. He acquired it on the ground when they came out (2004-2005). This was in both. It was, and remains, one of the only two great examples I know of. Comes with a custom lucite display base. Illustrated in Collecting Pseudomorphs: The Changelings of Mineralogy (Mineralogical Record, Jan 2025) on page 75. Also illustrated in ExtraLapis #43: Pseudomorphs. Awarded Tucson Gem and Mineral Show's best in show Paul Desautels Trophy case (2009). Laszlo Kupi photo.

$6,000.00