Baryte

Unknown Owner

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This very large miniature crystallized Baryte from Beerwalde, Ronneburg U deposit, Gera, Thuringia, Germany comes from Hans Engelbrecht's collection (no. 6283) with his label. Although not labelled specifically as such, the form of the crystals, as creamy-beige, wide tabular platy crystals, is identical to those found in 1983 at the 360 m level in what what was dubbed the "vug of death". This infamous 2 m high pocket claimed the life of a miner who was extracting crystals. Engelbrecht's label does document it as found in 1983, which supports this provenance. The largest crystal on this piece reaches 3.5 cm in length by 2.5 cm across and although it has one chip towards the middle of its termination it is still very fine with an extremely bright glossy lustre on one side and more resinous lustre on the other.