Post by fantastic5 on Dec 19, 2016 13:40:21 GMT -5
A good rock friend of mine called me a few weeks ago to ask if I wanted to go in on a small buy from a big estate. This is from the Marvin Miller collection. Marvin was a well known collector out of South Carolina. I agreed to the buy, sight unseen. Mostly because I've been needing a rock fix and knowing Dave, the friend who called, this would be a fantastic opportunity.
And being a good friend, I immediately offered to split my split with my best friend Tina. We started sorting at 11am on Saturday. And by 8pm, we hadn't stopped for lunch and had only split half of the material.
Here is Tina and Dave beginning the sort. This is half, the other half was already in the barn.
Some of the big plates
Tina has never met a rock she didn't like. Glad she doesn't visit this forum. She'd kick my butt for posting this picture
Slabs
So hard to choose! The draw was much more difficult than I thought it would be. We all wanted a bit of everything.
And yes, those two green blocks are nephrite. Beautiful old stock nephrite. My DH spotted those right away. We did get one of the blocks in the draw!
Purple
Some really nice fossils
I really want to know about the solid black limb cast. I choose it in the draw. Each end is already polished, great limb and small branches detail. But overall pretty light weight. Had anyone seen anything like this?
We ended up with a huge piece of native copper, fire agate and this blue beryl specimen for the final draw of the day. I didn't get a photo of the other two, kicking myself for that. But we were so tired at that point.I got this beryl in the draw. Probably from the Hogg Mine in Georgia. Almost a foot long. Marvin did the repair himself, needs to be redone at some point. But right now I'm super happy with it just the way it is!
There were about 15 tackle style boxes with all manner of material. I didn't get any photo's of the boxes during the draw, but will get some as I begin to sort mine. Some notable things that we saw in the tackle boxes. Tina got several small cut diamonds. I got some cut opal with brilliant fire. We divided one box that was nothing but fire agate between us. We also found enough gem chrysoprase that we were each able to get several pieces each. My DH was supper pleased with a faceting rough box. Looks like everything from sherry topaz to smokey quartz.
I will post some more notable finds as I sort my boxes and again when we sort and draw the remainder of the material.
Thanks for looking!
And being a good friend, I immediately offered to split my split with my best friend Tina. We started sorting at 11am on Saturday. And by 8pm, we hadn't stopped for lunch and had only split half of the material.
Here is Tina and Dave beginning the sort. This is half, the other half was already in the barn.
Some of the big plates
Tina has never met a rock she didn't like. Glad she doesn't visit this forum. She'd kick my butt for posting this picture
Slabs
So hard to choose! The draw was much more difficult than I thought it would be. We all wanted a bit of everything.
And yes, those two green blocks are nephrite. Beautiful old stock nephrite. My DH spotted those right away. We did get one of the blocks in the draw!
Purple
Some really nice fossils
I really want to know about the solid black limb cast. I choose it in the draw. Each end is already polished, great limb and small branches detail. But overall pretty light weight. Had anyone seen anything like this?
We ended up with a huge piece of native copper, fire agate and this blue beryl specimen for the final draw of the day. I didn't get a photo of the other two, kicking myself for that. But we were so tired at that point.I got this beryl in the draw. Probably from the Hogg Mine in Georgia. Almost a foot long. Marvin did the repair himself, needs to be redone at some point. But right now I'm super happy with it just the way it is!
There were about 15 tackle style boxes with all manner of material. I didn't get any photo's of the boxes during the draw, but will get some as I begin to sort mine. Some notable things that we saw in the tackle boxes. Tina got several small cut diamonds. I got some cut opal with brilliant fire. We divided one box that was nothing but fire agate between us. We also found enough gem chrysoprase that we were each able to get several pieces each. My DH was supper pleased with a faceting rough box. Looks like everything from sherry topaz to smokey quartz.
I will post some more notable finds as I sort my boxes and again when we sort and draw the remainder of the material.
Thanks for looking!