Baryte

$380.00

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The iron mines around the town of Frizington in the West Cumbrian iron orefield are famous for having produced some of the most spectacular crystallized mineral specimens seen in museums around the world. These include large and very heavy bubbly-textured Hematite specimens but also superb bladed crystals of Baryte in colours ranging from cream, yellow, red, blue and grey. This fine doubly-terminated bladed Baryte crystal is unusually coloured red due to fine inclusions of Hematite. At 8 cm in length it is an excellent size and is unusually complete, but it should be remarked that the way it is attached to a sliver of matrix has impinged its full growth on one edge. Otherwise, it is an almost perfect floater, and displays a nice transition for the red Hematite inclusions on one side, to cream coloured on the reverse. It is a fine Frizington Baryte with the classic doubly-terminated bladed form and only minimal signs of contact damage on one side. Its terminations are extremely fine. Ex Malcolm Southwood Collection, no. MS 2004.012, and prior to that ex Don Alderson Collection (no. 774) - Don was of course a specialist collector of Baryte, based in Northern England and later on in Scotland. Both collector's labels accompany the specimen which also bears Don Alderson's distinctive "D.A" number tag and an earlier painted 694 label.