This is a limited edition print of NWA 12691 (see lots 2, 14 and 55) created by renowned photographer Neil Buckland. It was captured from a thin section of a NWA 12691 specimen that was 35 microns thick (a human hair is 90-150 microns). Buckland has pioneered a new micro-panoramic imaging system that combines hundreds of individual photographs to yield a seamless "microscape" of unprecedented detail. The ability to image larger areas provides researchers a far greater context in their studies of commingled mineral components. Widely published and exhibited in both galleries and museums, Buckland collaborates with Dr. Anthony Irving, among the world’s foremost meteorite classification experts.

NWA 12691 is a lunar meteorite. The predominant mineral grains (grays and whites) in this cross-polarized (XPL90) image are calcium-rich plagioclase of a variety called anorthite; pyroxene and olivine (colored grains) also occur as well as very small grains of opaque iron-rich oxides. This rock is a breccia, meaning that it was broken up and mixed by multiple ancient impacts of small asteroids onto the surface of the Moon. Several thin, “wispy” veinlets of calcite are of terrestrial origin, precipitated from infiltrating groundwater as this specimen lay partially buried in the Sahara Desert.

A 12-color archival pigment on 100% cotton rag. Coated with a satin acrylic finish, the print is frameless, glassless and mounted on a birch wood panel. The panel is signed and numbered — limited edition 7 of 9 — on the reverse.

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.

40 x 40 in. (101.6 x 101.6cm)