Crocoite (Huge Crystal From Type Locality! )

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This specimen is from the type locality for crocoite at an old lead and copper mine in Berezovsk, Russia. It is a single crystal with moderate luster and translucence, and a superb, realgar-like, red-orange color. But what makes it incredible is the sheer SIZE. Maybe others are out there in some museum drawer but this is an order of magnitude bigger than any I have seen in the number of major museums I have been to, or in any books or other references to the locale. It is a veritable monster crystal. It is unfortunately repaired at a line about 40% up from the bottom, though other dings or edge wear is very trivial (for such a soft species, and old specimen, in particular). However, in a piece of this significance I am okay with repairs at a reduced price - and you could always unrepair it and the top 60% of the crystal is STILL the biggest such example from here I have seen, on its own merit. It is doubly terminated, too, so the bottom is nice and sharp as well. As a note on provenance, the history has been lost but it did come from the collection of Carlton David. He was a thumbnail specialist, and a rarities collector. He was also my own mentor in fine minerals and thumbnails, whom I met when I was 12 years old in Columbus, Ohio. In 1999-2000 he sold and traded a few things away before I purchased much of the rest of his collection, and this got away from me (only to return now!). This was actually the first crocoite specimen I ever saw in my life, and so I had an unrealistic expectation of what crocoite looked like; and it took me years to stomach buying contemporary Aussie pieces with the skinny crystals, once I had gotten into my mind that this was a reasonable standard to aspire to. Carlton worked as a salesman for Ward's Science Establishment in Rochester after World War II for a number of years and had the chance to go through thousands of old accumulated pieces there. Many of his old classics came from those drawers, from un-named old collections mixed together over the years of that company's long existence and accumulation. His keen eye picked them out of the crowd of reference and scientific supply specimens which was the company's other stock in trade.