Barite on Calcite

Unknown Owner

Help improve this recordNo owner is registered for this specimen yet. If it's yours or you know more about it, you can add the owner, provenance, publications and other details.

Large specimens from this remote, and little-yielding barite deposit are most uncommon. This is in fact one of the few cabinet pieces of high quality that I have seen. While it does not have giant crystals, it DOES have 3 very fine medium-sized crystals of extremely high quality. The largest measures 5.5 cm and the widest is over 2 cm thick. All have perfect terminations, steep and pristine. Reamarkably, as these form in tight concretions and are almost impossible to gently extract, this piece is not repaired in the matrix or larger crystal. Only the smallest, leftmost crystal is repaired (and that, done cleanly). The specimen was exhibited at the 2008 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in the American Gem & Mineral Treasures exhibition, and is pictured in the book published in conjunction with the show: American Mineral Treasures. It is also pictured in the recap of the exhibition in the Mineralogical Record, May-June 2008. This was long in a private collection, surfacing just before the exhibition. The graded background shot is a Jeff Scovil photo, the one used in the book as stated above.