NWA 869 – L3-6 The Sahara Desert

The milk-chocolate colored matrix of NWA 869 is accented with slate-grey and ochre accents and a multitude of metallic flecks throughout — all of which are signature characteristics of NWA 869. In the second sphere, metal flecks of iron-nickel are suspended throughout its ebony matrix. As a result of its homogeneity, its petrographic type appears to be “6”. Modern fashioning.
39 mm. (1½ in.) diameter and 121.8 g. (¼ lbs)
39 mm. (1½ in.) diameter and 129.8 g. (¼ lbs)


Two spheres fashioned from meteorites. Created from prosaically shaped meteorites found in the expansive NWA 869 strewn field — a massive area from which many meteorites were recovered, including meteorites which are not NWA 869. And thus the beautiful ebony sphere which accompanies the sphere of NWA 869. The NWA 869 meteorite shower is among the largest documented meteorite showers of all time. The meteorite is a breccia, a rock composed of many small inclusions that have experienced different degrees of metamorphic heating within its parent asteroid. Some material (type-3 chondrite fragments) largely escaped heating and still retain their primitive textures and compositions; other materials (e.g., type-6 chondrite fragments) have been extensively heated and recrystallized. The classification of the ebony meteorite is unknown — it was aggregated with NWA 869 material prior to sphere-making, but it is most certainly a different meteorite — and a marvelous meteorite at that.

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 catalog note.