Orpiment

60 x 40 x 38 mm overall

Beautiful bright-orange, sparkly, ball-like clusters and somewhat isolated radial groups of sharp, gemmy, euhedral Orpiment crystals completely cover both sides of an elongated Barite matrix. The individual Orpiment crystals measure up to 6 mm long by 1 mm wide. Most of these specimens are flat plates with little relief, and with many contacts due to the tight mineralized veins, but this one has nice 3-dimensionality and contrasts superbly with the underlying white Barite matrix. These Russian Orpiments have the brightest orange-red hues you will ever see. Almost all of these have at least a few tiny bruises on them, and this one is in fine condition. In 2003 these were somewhat common on the market, but supplies of this material seems to have all but dried up now. Collected in 2001 or 2002, this is a top notch display piece!