This end piece is flawlessly prepared, polished to a mirror finish on the cut face exhibiting beautiful olivine crystals set in a nickel-iron matrix. This particular piece contains large farringtonite inclusions, which are rare even in Springwater - the meteorite in which the rare mineral was discovered. To this day it’s only been identified in a few other pallasites.

The Springwater meteorite is a perfect example of a stony-iron. A mixture of nearly 50/50 nickel-iron and olivine crystals. In the 1930’s when the meteorite was discovered by farmers clearing their fields of rocks, the lucky finders made money by selling meteorites during the Great Depression. Several masses were found; sadly, the largest was thrown down a deep well long before it was recognized as a meteorite and has been lost. One person described how the giant meteorite used to sit on the porch of a local store, where kids would hammer on it to hear the metallic ring. In 2008 Michael Farmer found a hand drawn treasure map of sorts in the archives of the Arizona State University Center for Meteorite Studies. The map was sent to Harvey Nininger (the most famous meteorite hunter/collector of the age); it was still in the envelope it was mailed in. One of the local farmers in Springwater had marked the location of several meteorites he had found on his property and was inquiring whether a meteorite crater might be located nearby. This led Michael’s team to Springwater to re-discover the lost strewn-field. The team found many meteorites, this end piece being cut from one of them. The largest mass was sold to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto as a national treasure of Canada. Once the government received the largest piece, the remainder was given export permits to leave Canada. Springwater is well known for its stability, the nice small green- to golden-coloured peridot crystals, and the rare phosphate mineral farringtonite.

This specimen is larger than almost all of the pieces housed in museums around the world. Only the London, Toronto and ASU collections contain pieces larger than this. Truly a masterpiece fit for any museum or private collection.

Christie's would like to thank Dr. Alan E. Rubin at the Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles for his assistance in preparing this catalogue.
180 mm x 130 mm x 95 mm (7 x 5¹⁄₈ x 3³⁄₄ in.)
5.18kg.

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