Lithographie Ltd

09/18/2025

A break-in was detected on Tuesday, with the intruders reportedly using an angle grinder and a blow torch to force their way into the river-side complex.

09/15/2025

Public museums and private collections are stuffed with scientific artefacts gathered by individuals — often with highly questionable obsessions and motivations.

08/27/2025

Some of our readers are more persnickety than others. In spite of going to great lengths (and expense) to get your books to you in collectible condition, we always get a handful of returns. The most memorable was a request for a replacement owing to the fact that the customer was certain he was not the first to open his monograph. I asked him what made him think that, and he said he “could tell by the smell”; so when I came across this infographic, I had to laugh.

08/20/2025

Corey is putting the finishing touches on our 2026 "Copper Minerals" calendar, which we hope to begin distributing at the Denver shows. With a personal introduction by Evan Jones, the calendar includes a photo of this 27 cm wide native copper "roadrunner" found in an obscure Minnesota locality. The specimen is in the collection of Chuck Graves, who we have been unable to reach. Seems he'll be as surprised as many of you when he opens his calendar and sees what will be gracing our readers’ walls in 2026.

Check out this custom base that we just finished for a customer's unique Minnesota Copper! They were thrilled with the outcome and were happy that they could take it home with them today. We're still in Tucson for a few more days and are happy to make a base on site OR take your specimen's home to Denver and make bases there!

COPPER
St. Louis County, Minnesota
Chuck Graves Collection

08/17/2025

Mimetite, 7.5 cm tall
Tsumeb, Namibia
Jeff Scovil photo
Mineral Research Trust collection

https://www.lithographie.org/bookshop/tsumeb22.htm

08/16/2025

Well hello, Dermot!

For years, an Australian prospector kept a heavy, reddish rock in his possession, certain he’d struck gold—literally. Weighing a solid 17 kilograms, it was unlike anything else he’d found. Too heavy to chip and impossible to scratch, it resisted every attempt to break it open. Convinced it was hiding a gold nugget inside, he guarded it closely.
Eventually, curiosity led him to bring the rock to experts at the Melbourne Museum. What they told him would change the way he saw it forever. This wasn’t gold. It wasn’t even from Earth. It was a 4.6-billion-year-old meteorite—a piece of the solar system’s earliest days, older than our planet itself.
The meteorite’s dense, iron-rich structure and rare composition made it far more valuable than gold—not just in money, but in scientific importance. Researchers believe it came from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, blasted free by ancient collisions before eventually hurtling through space and landing in Australia thousands of years ago.
Meteorites like this are time capsules, preserving clues about the formation of planets and the building blocks of life. This one, now known as the Maryborough Meteorite, is among the largest ever found in the region.
The man’s years-long “gold” treasure hunt ended in a surprise twist: his find was rarer, older, and more precious than anything he could have imagined. Sometimes, the greatest treasures don’t glitter—they fall from the stars.

08/13/2025

08/11/2025

“Mr Biggie,” one of the most famous Tsumeb azurites, sitting for a photo shoot.

08/06/2025

Flattered.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BA1n4vBQ4/

03/14/2025

More than one year in the making, The Smale Collection 3 is on its way to the bindery in Canada. Special thanks to Jeff Scovil, Dave Bunk, Corey Neumeier, Mike Jensen, Connor Pallis, Rob Lavinsky, and Michael Bainbridge for helping us get this beautiful volume to press!