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Identity HelpHelp with Chinese Characters - Orpiment Locality

3rd Mar 2019 21:09 UTCKelly Nash 🌟 Expert

Maybe someone can translate this old label from Dave Shannon that is supposed to be the exact locality for an orpiment specimen. I've had it sitting in a drawer for about 20 years. Dave translated it as "Hu Lan", but that is not much help:

Here's the specimen, about 5 cm. across:

4th Mar 2019 08:31 UTCDon Windeler

I had my wife take a look at it and she could read Hunan Province but wasn't sure about the rest. I did a search on "orpiment" and "Hunan" with the result that virtually all pictures are from the Shimen deposit (https://www.mindat.org/loc-708.html). When I showed her the English for that locality, though, she's pretty sure that's not it (unless it has a different name).

I also had her look at the other localities that show up on that search and none sounded right, unfortunately. Might have to stick with Hunan Province unless someone else recognizes it.

Cheers,

D.

4th Mar 2019 14:35 UTCKelly Nash 🌟 Expert

Thanks very much, Don! That narrows it down quite a bit.

5th Mar 2019 02:42 UTCアーロンベリル

Haven't studied Chinese in ages, but hope this helps:

7th Mar 2019 15:33 UTCKelly Nash 🌟 Expert

Thanks, Aaron, Cili County is adjacent to (west of) Shimen Co. and I gather there were some changes to the county lines some years back, so I guess it's possible, or even likely, that the piece is indeed from the Shimen Mine, which is on the west side of Shimen County.

I was surprised that it worked, but once you made a more legible drawing of the last three characters, I took a picture with Google Translate, and got "Cili County".

Mindat doesn't list any orpiment localities in Cili Co., so for now, I guess I'll just stick with Hunan Province.