Joaquim Callen's Photo Gallery

NT89AJ6
Typically from the classic Red Cloud mine the tabular crystals are very sharp and are implanted on a limonite matrix, showing all of their splendor and beauty with the perfection of the crystal forms and the intensity of their bright red color. The sample is from the Ignacio Hernández collection whose label we will send to the buyer.

TE37AI9
A floater group of pyritohedral crystals without minor forms, with very well-defined faces and edges, very bright and partially coated by growths of calcite microcrystals. The specimen is from a locality where good Pyrite specimens are not so common.

TA68AG2
"Electric blue" is the proper name that has been given to the color of the best Azurites from Milpillas. Certainly these Azurites seem to have their own light as if they emit light instead of capturing it. This small filigree represents very well that "electric" color as well as the best quality of the Milpillas Azurites.

TP16AI9
Pseudocrystals of Malachite after Azurite in parallel growth on a matrix of fibrous Malachite: bright, with very rich color.

TH16AI9
This is a single, sharp, doubly terminated floater of Malachite pseudomorphous after Azurite, apparently simple, but the polycrystalline growths are full of interesting details.

TG99AI9
This is a group of pseudocrystals of Malachite after Azurite, one of them clearly dominant, with very well-defined faces and edges and a very deep color, partially coated by fibrous Malachite.

TA30AG1
Milpillas is in recent times a kind of lighthouse for the fans of minerals from all over the world. Within the extensive catalog of spectacular minerals their Cuprites are not the most recognized, but their quality is very high.

TL62AI9
Brochantite crystals from Milpillas are famous for their sharpness and generally excellent quality. Here we have a group of idiomorphic Brochantite crystals with well-defined faces and edges and chisel-like terminations. The specimen’s composition, with large crystals on matrix coated by smaller crystals, makes for fine aesthetics. In my opinion this locality produces the world’s finest Brochantite specimens.

TR88AI9
Brochantite specimens from Milpillas have won a well-deserved fame for their excellent quality. In this case, the idiomorphic crystals are elongated,with sharp faces and edges and a very deep green color; the matrix is partially coated by a later generation of brochantite, showing pale green fibrous crystals with satiny luster. In my opinion this locality offers the world’s best Brochantite as judged by crystal size and sharpness, deep color and high luster.

TA70AG2
Most of the mineral species that the Milpillas mine has produced are the best of the best. The Brochantites are part of this rating and this piece is a good example of it for its excellent color, its richness of crystals, and the fact that the crystals are on a rock matrix.

EK57AI9
Milpillas Volborthite specimens are without doubt the world’s best: with their large crystal size and high luster they set a new standard for this rare species. This small specimen shows a rosette-shaped growth of flattened Volborthite crystals on matrix; the rosette is very sharp and deeply colored.

TE87AG1
Boleite with Atacamite-Paratacamite on matrix. Coming from recent finds in the famous Amelia Mine due to work on the dumps there.

TQ51AG1
Creedites are well known from this mine, but their Fluorites are not as well known and yet they are excellent; octahedral and violet and more rarely in very large crystals such as this one. On a base of Quartz and a first generation of green Fluorite, the collector José Luis Vallecillo was right in his choice of this powerful Fluorite.

DP16AG6
The Daunis collection is a faithful mirror of the minerals that were found in Spain in the 60’s and 70’s. The Asturreta Quarry, specifically the area called "El Pozo," produced in those years the best known Dolomites and Daunis had the ability to get some of them of extraordinary quality. This piece is a good example.

NP90AG2
The upper levels of the great classic mine of Panasqueira are now producing very good specimens. We have gone from a period of scarcity to the current wealth, but in my opinion we are in a transitory period that may end when the mine goes to different areas. So far several pieces as attractive as this zoned crystal of Fluorapatite have been recovered, isolated and well placed on its matrix of Quartz and Muscovite.

EB12AK2
One of those discoveries due to the good work of amateurs. A treasure recovered in an unexpected place in the abandoned Four de Cluzel Mine. Fluorite crystals, translucent, with extraordinary luster, have a very intense and uniform lemon yellow color and are partially coated, selectively, by small water-clear Quartz crystals. Because of its color, luster and crystal size, these are among the most beautiful French Fluorites.

LT70AK2
The specimen is a perfect aesthetic compendium of Sphalerite, with complex crystals, one of them clearly dominant and very aerial, of unusual size for the locality, with distinct polycrystalline growths and with curvatures on the faces and edge, translucent, lustrous and rich in deep and intense color tones. On matrix, with Dolomite and white rhombohedral crystals of Calcite. The specimen is from the Philippe Morelon collection (No. 1075), whose catalogue entry we will send to the buyer.

LK91AK2
A good example of what is expected of an Alpine fissure Smoky Quartz, for its transparency, intense luster and depth of color. Associated with some small Epidote crystals. The sample is from the Philippe Morelon collection (No. 766), whose catalogue entry we will send to the buyer.

LQ99AK2
Good example of what is expected in a Pyromorphite from Des Farges, and not only because of the intense grass-green color, but also because of the arborescent, very aerial growth, and the definition of the crystals, with their tapering habit and the hoppered ends. A French classic that comes from the Philippe Morelon collection (No. 1080), whose catalogue entry we will send to the buyer.

LY26AK2
A true classic from Des Farges, both for its crystalline morphology with slightly tapered crystals and good flat terminations, as well as for the excellent luster, the greenish yellow color, the phantoms visible in transmitted light and the geometric yellow-toned color zoning that is brighter around the terminations. A French classic that comes from the Philippe Morelon collection (No. 1085), whose catalogue entry we will send to the buyer.

LG91AK2
The elongated shape of the specimen enhances the aesthetics of these crystals on matrix that form very well defined polycrystalline growths, with good pyramidal terminations. The color, unusual for the locality, is cream yellow with greenish tones. A French classic that comes from the Philippe Morelon collection (No. 531), whose catalogue entry we will send to the buyer.

TP48AH3
Thinking of Grossular localities it is very probable that the first in our mind will be Val d’Ala. The crystals, very well defined and combining the forms of the dodecahedron and the trapezohedron, with splendid color and luster and the presence on the matrix of Diopside and Clinochlore crystals do this sample great credit as an Italian classic.

ET92AG6
We love the classics, and when they are good then it is the best! This classic from England easily was found 100 years ago and reflects very well a period in the history of minerals in which the United Kingdom was the reference for many mineral species, including Pyromorphite.
The Moutet collection from Marseille is the origin of this piece and the label of the prestigious shop Deyrolle de Paris that accompanies it is as historic as the Pyromorphite itself.

EP69AJ6
Radial and fan-like aggregates of acicular Kermesite crystals. They are extraordinarily bright and have an intense deep red color, on matrix with small white Calcite crystals.

CA91AI6
Relatively common in the eighties the Celestine samples from Machov had a great success in the collectible mineralogical world due both for their strict mineralogical interest and the esthetic appearance of the crystals, elongated and transparent, often with smoky shades and extraordinarily bright. They are currently considered as classics of mineralogy and there are few samples for collectors. To all this we must add that the Celestine has the unusual property of being phosphorescent (during 1-2 seconds)

TN89AG1
Rudabánya is a classic European town famous for its Cuprites replaced by Malachite and although there are also Azurites they are normally of modest quality. This piece, however, is of good quality and size and improves on what is usually seen coming from that mine.

MG30AI6
A sample that reclaims a special attention, both for its spectacular appearance and for its complexity, because the Galena has the pseudomorph shape of parallel growths of old tabular Pyrrhotite crystals coated by Pyrite further recrystallized in small cubic and cubo-octahedral crystals, and with some twinned Sphalerite crystals. Being that the Pyrrhotite is after Galena and not Pyrite (which is the the most typical) the chemical stability of the sample seems assured.

EP40AI6
The well known aesthetics of the Kosovar samples enhance some minerals that are currently considered as “modest,” as is the case with this Galena that forms cubo-octahedral crystals that are twinned according to the spinel-law, some of them flattened, all them extraordinarily bright and on matrix with Quartz crystals.

EJ89AG8
The great mining region of Trepča is one of the largest polymetal deposits in the world and it has given for many years exceptional pieces of Sphalerite as well as varied combinations of sulfides and carbonates. This old piece, found before the mine went back to work in 2005, presents an architectural group of large rhombohedral Dolomite crystals partially coated by Calcite crystals and with a cluster of Pyrite crystals on one side of the piece. Small crystals of Arsenopyrite dot the large Dolomite crystals and also some small Quartz crystals complete the combo.

ME14AJ6
Fine and aerial botryoidal growth of rhombohedral crystals that are between yellow and orange, contrasting nicely with white Calcite coatings.

TX97AH3
You can opine, perhaps, that Calcite is a “modest” species, but it can also reach unexpected heights of elegance as in the case of this complete crystal that is clear, colorless, very rich in faces and has additional elongated Calcite and Aragonite crystals with curious parallel growths. Due to its special transparency, the Calcite crystal has a high birrefringence that allows one to see “double” images through it.

EB66AG6
Between 1997 and 1998 there appeared in the 2nd Sovietskii Mine from Dalnegorsk specimens of red Quartz with a very different habit from the usual, elongated, crisscrossed, and forming very "sculptural" groups. Although at that time it was thought that they would continue to come out, as soon as they appeared they disappeared and they have not been seen again. From that extraordinary time we have rescued this elegant specimen in which the red Quartz is partially covered with white Quartz.

FF71AI9
An aesthetic group of octahedral Fluorite crystals with polycrystalline growths on the edges. The translucent Fluorite crystals have a very deep violet color, and they share their matrix with cubic Pyrite crystals and small Quartz crystals. The specimen is from a mine which went extinct many years ago.

DP6AK1
Apparently simple but very balanced, rich in nuances and with many contrasts. Bright crystals with a parallel growth of very sharp, hyaline and brilliant. The matrix is also Baryte as a first phase of growth, translucent and cream colored. A Moroccan classic. The sample is from the Daunis collection.

AB16AK1
The best possible color for the Vanadinite! The crystals on a white Baryte matrix have very sharp faces and edges, some very marked hopper growths and they are translucent and extraordinarily bright. A specimen that can compete wonderfully with the best quality of the latest finds of Vanadinite in Morocco and that comes from the collection of Josep Amigó (Silvane) whose label we will send to the buyer.

EV86AK1
Aesthetic aggregate of cubic Pyrite crystals with very clear polycrystalline surfaces, bright and with curvatures of the faces and edges. Partially coated by small white crystals of Quartz.

EL66AK1
The intensity of color and the brightness of the crystals are simply superb. They are translucent and very sharp with very well defined faces and edges and are partially coated by small crystals of white Baryte. A little gem.

ED27AK1
Curious distribution of primary Malachite crystals in small parallel groups of sharp, elongated and very intense and deep colored crystals. The primary Malachite is very rare at this locality.

EK86AK1
An atypical Erythrite in which two generations coexist, a first generation of very sharp crystals with a very intense and vivid color, and a second generation with small elongated crystals with a much lighter color.
The sample is from the Raúl Sanabria collection whose label we will send to the buyer.

TH16AK1
Surprising is the morphological perfection of the laminar crystals, on matrix, very sharp, bright and with a very well defined hexagonal contour. The analysis, which we will send a copy of to the buyer, indicates an intimate growth of Djurleite and Chalcocite with Djurleite dominant.

TB37AG6
There are few good Djurleites left from the ones recovered at the Aït Ahmane Mine between 2014 and 2015. We were lucky to be able to gain access to the finest pieces during Tucson 2017 and we still have some of great quality. This one in particular is the best we have left. These large crystals with good definition, both on the front and on the back, and with some minor matrix makes an excellent specimen.

TF99AK1
A rare species with many attractions including the profiled and simple shapes of the two crystals, and their blue color, and dramatized by the partial substitution by Azurite and the subsequent substitution in some areas by green Malachite. An excellent classic from Morocco.

TD29AK1
The Anglesite is surely one of the species, along with the Azurite and the Cerussite, that has given most fame to the Touissit Mine. In this case it is a specimen with very sharp crystals, one of them clearly dominant, with considerable length, doubly terminated, translucent, bright with a light yellow color and on matrix.

EJ68AK1
Very bright Azurite crystals with very marked parallel growths, perfect terminations and on matrix. With Galena and Malachite, a Touissit classic.

NA37AK1
Really peculiar is this cubic Fluorite, a floater with very marked polycrystalline growths, translucent and with geometric color zoning, more intense in the nucleus of the crystal. With geometric cavities that suggest the previous existence of trigonal crystals, probably Calcite, that have subsequently dissolved. The locality is very little known and even less known for pieces of this quality.

EX89AJ6
The sample, a single crystal, is a complete floater with an uncommon morphological appearance. It has a base with two opposite polycrystalline terminal areas and an enlargement of the crystal that finishes with a very acute pyramid. To the curiosity of the crystal shape we must add the attractive color, between green and yellow.

TM49AI2
Some minerals are fortunate, either for the time they were discovered, or by the circumstances of their discovery or even by the place where they were found and beyond their greater or lesser beauty, of having become true myths of mineralogy. This is what happens with the Grandidierite of which, in addition, recent discoveries of an exceptional quality have been made to date, as is the case with this splendid individual flattened crystal with faces and edges unusually sharp and with the top termination very well defined while the lower termination is polycrystalline and somewhat rough. The crystal is bright, between transparent and translucent and it has a very deep and uniform bluish-green color.

TN56AG8
Sceptered Quartz variety smoky from an isolated find in which the upper part of the crystals is of an excellent smoky color and the lower part on which the scepter grows is milky Quartz with faces coated by parallel growths of small crystals, also Quartz.

MQ53AG6
In 2017 in the N'Chwaning I Mine some manual work for the extraction of collector’s specimens was reinitiated. This fine Rhodochrosite is a good example of the result of this work. Good color and great luster are the hallmarks of this piece.

TM54AJ6
The crystal, completely transparent, is very bright and very rich with pyramidal terminal faces. It is notable for its luster, its clarity and its intense yellow color. A small jewel we will send in the original Perkin’s box from the R.J. Noble collection, also containing the collection label on which it appears that it previously was in the Bob Sullivan collection.

TF90AI2
The gemstone deposits of the Brazilian pegmatites will never cease to amaze us. This is the case with this specimen, rich in elongated crystals of Elbaite with a considerable variety of terminal forms (many recrystallized), a bright green color and in a Quartz matrix, and with leafy aggregates of a Mica which, according their violet shades, could be Lepidolite.

NF90AJ6
Very aerial polycrystalline growth of very bright and transparent crystals with sharp 'window' growths. An old Brazilian sample, a classic.

MV37AJ6
Surely this ample offers the most classic image of what a native Copper sample should be, with delicate and very well balanced arborescent growths of crystals with rounded faces and edges and with the precise matrix to give it the necessary esthetic character.

MF98AJ6
Colombian Gold samples with a certain esthetic quality are really rare so we must note the finesse and the richness of the leafy Gold growths of the sample we present here, a sample that comes from the Raúl Sanabria collection whose label we will send to the buyer.

MB91AG1
This elegant silver-rich Tetrahedrite with Chalcopyrite and Quartz has a long history with labels starting in 1925 by Franz Ding and ending with John S. White. At that time the silver-rich Tetrahedrite was called "Freibergite", that name has come with the label but an analysis have proven that it is not "Freibergite" but silver-rich Tetrahedrite. Although the photos may look like there is a broken crystal the piece is perfect and has no damage. We will send labels and the analysis to the buyer of the specimen.

MC56AI9
The Pyrite crystals on this specimen are perfect examples of the pyritohedron form, and they are very sharp and bright.
The specimen is from the collection of Enrique Moës, whose label we will send to the buyer.

NF89AG8
A little-known mine, La Paloma, in the district of Quiruvilca, Peru, gives some curious specimens like this botryoidal Arsenic, with a certain beauty despite the modest aesthetics that this species usually has. Also on matrix, visible since it is white.

TF17AJ9
The beauty of modest and rare form and color. An aerial group of strongly elongated Chalcocite crystals with very well defined faces and edges, arborescent recrystallizations on terminations and coated by fine botryoidal growths of iridescent Chalcopyrite that have dominant blue and green metallic shades. We know from existing references that Djurleite partially substitutes for most of the crystals.

TR76AJ9
Very aerial and elegant group of Gold crystals with the well-defined crystalline forms of the octahedron and the dodecahedron. They are elongated, some of them with “window” and skeletal growths and some laminar forms.

EA92AJ9
Different from the more well-known Bolivian Valentinite, this one is in spheroidal aggregates of radial acicular crystals that are on a limonite matrix, have very well defined faces and edges, are very bright and have a uniform yellow color.

TV50AJ9
Very well known in mineral collecting the beauty of these complex Sphalerite crystals never ceases to amaze us. They are translucent, very bright and with a very deep color, on a matrix coated bay small Quartz crystals and cubo-octahedral Galena crystals with very well defined faces and edges.

TB49AH3
Accustomed to a very different esthetics on Pyromorphite samples from the Daoping mine, the finds between 2012 and 2013 surprised us with these very aerial and stylized shapes, whose crystals have very well defined faces and edges and showing a color and luster of great quality.

TR91AJ9
One of the attractive aspects of the sample is the contrast between the dark crystalline matrix and the pale shades of the elongated Pyromorphite crystals, a lot of them doubly terminated, with hollow terminations and partially coated and replaced by Plumbogummite of a pale blue color.

MA86AH3
Plumbogummite growths that are between botryoidal and stalactitic. They have an intense greenish-blue color and velvety surfaces and they have empty cores with the shape of lost Pyromorphite crystals as well as some yellow traces of these former Pyromorphite crystals. The sample has been analyzed and we’ll send a copy of the analysis to the buyer.

MR88AG1
Yes, it is Calcite, a very common species, but check out the crystallographic habit of this group of crystals and their light pink color. Different…

EJ87AH3
Esthetics and mineralogy are joined on this elongated Fluorite sample, with Fluorite crystal cubes that are translucent, with a lilac color on their interior and strongly saturated violet color on their edges, and they are partially coated by Baryte on the back. They have grown around a fine elongated Stibnite crystal that is partially visible due to the transparency of the Fluorite.

MP88AJ9
A very well balanced sample which spotlights their transparency and the luster and diaphaneity of the octahedral Fluorite crystals beveled by the dodecahedron and the cube, and the right matrix with Quartz, Calcite and Dolomite.

ET96AH3
Even the most well known occurrences can adopt different forms, new or attractive, as this irregular surface completely recrystallized on both of its ends by transparent cubic Fluorite crystals with an intense violet color. Similar to a geode, but fully upholstered by Fluorite crystals “in” and “out” at the same time…

TL68AJ9
The sample is especially attractive due the contrast between the thin and sharp forms of the rosette aggregates of the laminar Hematite crystals, very bright, and the rounded outlines of the aggregates of white Quartz crystals with the “artichoke-like” shape.

EV97AJ9
Perhaps simply Quartz but it has a surprising variety of forms and morphological changes, with parallel growths on the scepter terminations, dipyramidal, with a short prism (in some cases those faces are nonexistent or poorly visible and such crystals have sometimes been erroneously described as β-Quartz). The Quartz group is very rich in inclusions and partially coated by small, white Calcite-Dolomite crystals.

MR90AH3
The year 2010 saw the ringing of the bell of the first great samples arriving from Huanggang, a mining area of which little had been spoken of until that moment. Among the novelties there were some Ilvaite samples with crystals of great size with very well defined faces and frequently with Quartz crystals. In a very short time these samples became classic, not only for China but also for the rest of the world.

TB50AJ9
Another sample with great impact, a group of clear Quartz crystals with reddish zones due to Hematite inclusions and partially coated by rosette aggregates (iron rose variety) of laminar Hematite crystals and a group of dipyramidal Helvine crystals. The Helvine, from the East Ujimqin Banner area and not from the classic Huanggang mine, has been analyzed and we will send a copy of the analysis to the buyer.

EA89AJ9
If the variation is pleasant, what better than this association of four species, two of them (Roweite and Olshanskyite) very rare? The Roweite is in aggregates of laminar crystals of great size and quality for what has been known for the species, and it is on matrix, with very sharp, clear and colorless Olshanskyite crystals, small Andradite crystals and octahedral Magnetite crystals. The Roweite crystals are neatly differentiated and have well defined faces and edges with a light creamy color. The quality of these specimens is undoubtedly superior to what was previously known, both for the individuality of the crystals and for their sharpness, but also for their association with first level Olshanskyite crystals, which makes them deserving to be in the best private collections and museums. We have analyzed samples to confirm the identity of the different species and we’ll send a copy of the analyses to the buyer.

EQ96AG1
The good definition and morphology of this Lazurite on Calcite takes us back to the time in which from this locality the "lapislazuli" was extracted and distributed throughout the world via the Silk Road.

ME68AI6
A Pakistan Beryl (aquamarine variety) crystal, very similar to old Brazilian samples, with the pinacoidal termination beveled by several pyramids and with inner phantom growths and dissolution channels all along the interior of the crystal.
The sample is from the Carles Manresa collection whose label we’ll send to the buyer.

TJ17AJ9
We must especially note the esthetic quality of this kind of floater Cerussite aggregates forming multiple twins of very sharp crystals that are between laminar and tabular, transparent, very bright and more neat and perfect than most of the samples from this locality.

MH46AH3
Seen and unseen, these samples that appeared at the Munich Show in 2015 are currently a rarity. They form arborescent growths of Willemite crystals pseudomorphous after Descloizite and have partial coatings of small barrel-shaped Mimetite crystals with an intense orange color.
This specimen was published on the Mineralogical Record´s web page, in the ‘What's New’ section, report 49, May 7, 2018 edition.

TM96AH3
The most innovative of this Iranian Mimetite sample is, undoubtedly, its sharpness and that its tabular crystals have a color, a transparency and a luster that are unusual for the species. In this concrete case we must note their esthetic growth on a matrix of white Calcite crystals.

EE36AJ9
On a species generally appearing on the gamma of white or gray, draws our attention the pleasant orange-red color selectively distributed in the very well defined trapezohedral crystals, one of them clearly dominant.

TC16AJ6
A very fine and aerial Gold growth with large leafy crystals. The sample is of an uncommon quality. We will send it in its original Perkin’s box from the R.J. Noble collection, also containing the collection label on which it appears that it was purchased from the Normandy Mining Limited Bronzewing Operations in 2003.

EH37AI6
A Broken Hill Anglesite with the special appeal of the ancient (the “oldies”) samples. The Anglesite has completely pseudomorphed a group of flattened Cerussite crystals with a coralloid aspect and that have a white color with pinkish shades.
The sample is from the René Hubin collection whose label we’ll send to the buyer with other two old labels that were with it.