Name: Legrandite
Brand: The Arkenstone
Price: 20000 USD
Availability: InStock

Legrandite

Quite simply, a stunning, 3-dimensional, lemon yellow spray of the top quality and top coloration possible, of this rare and beautiful mineral species legrandite. It is a boxbuster thumbnail or a small miniature, depending on if standing upright. They only came from one place, and the good specimens have literally only come out of a few pockets ever in the 100-year-plus life of the mine. Currently, the legrandite level is flooded and below water, making future mining extremely unlikely as well. Lastly, we know from the style, color, and age of the piece that this came from the particularly important Aztec Sun pocket which is well known and reported on at length in our book on the Miguel Romero collection (see attached image from that book with the story from Rock Currier). The intense yellow, diagonal spray style, and metallic glistening at the tips and on some faces are a dead giveway that this is indeed one of those legendary specimens - and a fine miniature, as well! From: Evan Jones and Mark Miterman, Unique Minerals (Scottsdale, Arizona), May 10, 2013, Alex's first choice when they brought the old Harry Roberson (August 22, 1929 - April 14, 2021) collection to market in that year. Even though perhaps technically this is a bit big for a thumbnail in competition, Alex loosened the rules for his own collection and did indeed own a number of "small miniatures/boxbuster thumbnails."In Tucson competition, if the piece does not stand vertically the way its optimal display should require, it might be disqualified as a "thumbnail" but could still be in an award winning Desautels case or any mixed size exhibition case. Harry Roberson was a well-known collector and mineral competition judge. A passion of Harry's was his mineral collection. The display of his thumbnail-size collection won Best in Show at the prestigious American Federation of Mineralogy Society show in Salt Lake City (in the 80s?). He also served as a judge in several national shows. Recently featured in the ultimate thumbnail-collectors book, Refined Elegance (Mineralogical Record, Nov. 2022) on page 142 as a full page specimen.

$20,000.00