Iron — IIIAB  Champagne-Ardenne, France

Lot Description:
This complete slice is rimmed with the meteorite’s exterior surface. Long needles of schreibersite are seen along with Neumann lines and shocked kamacite — the result of a calamitous impact with another mass while journeying in interplanetary space at cosmic velocity (appoximately eleven miles per second). Modern cutting.
84 x 101 x 3mm (3.33 x 4 x 0.1 in.)
155.7g (0.33 lb)


The Champagne of iron meteorites. The first mass from the meteorite shower from which this slice is derived was found while ploughing the land fifty years ago in Champagne, France. In part as a result of its unusual etch pattern, Saint Aubin was originally classified as an ungrouped iron and years later was reclassified as a IIIAB — an iron meteorite that features a medium octahedral crystalline structure seen to excellent effect in this bubbly example.

Christie's would like to thank Dr. Alan E. Rubin at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles for his assistance in preparing this catalogue.