Cassiterite

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This is an attractive, rich cluster of Cassiterite crystals from the ancient Dolcoath Mine in Cornwall, England (it has an antique parchment label glued to the bottom with a specific mine name, which is rare from those days). There are at least two dozen, well-formed, tetragonal (pseudo-octahedral), lustrous, brown-black crystals, from 3 mm to 1.1 cm in size, on the piece with a few showing twinning. The crystals are in excellent condition overall, although a few showing minor bruising. There are some small, translucent Quartz crystals on the periphery of the piece, however, most of them are damaged. Minor Siderite crystals to 1 mm or so, are also present. Cornwall was a major producer of tin and copper ore, but we rarely see good Cassiterite crystals like this from here on the market. The specimen is almost certainly from the 1800s; and many of the classics in the Seel collection were obtained when Paul Seel bought from the huge European collections being brought over to the USA for sale in the early 1900s by a number of East Coast based dealerships.