Name: Baryte on Dolomite
Brand: Crystal Classics
Price: 4500 USD
Availability: InStock

Updated 4d ago

Baryte on Dolomite

This might not be the most colourful Cumbrian Baryte, but what it lacks in that department it more than makes up in others. The specimen dates to the heyday of fine Barytes from the West Cumbrian iron ore field in the 1890s. Two old Chicago Natural History Museum labels accompany the specimen, one of which notes that it was purchased from "Ward's" in "3/94" - meaning March 1894 when Henry A. Ward was running the company. Both of these labels simply record its locality as "Cumberland, England" but its crystal form is very distinctive and was fine-tuned to Frizington by the last owner, G. Barker. Visually, the specimen is small, to perhaps medium cabinet in size, dominated by an intergrowth of large (up to 7.7 cm in length) prismatic Baryte crystals terminated with tooth-like serrated points. The crystals are almost beige in colour with hints of green internally and have a bright, somewhat resinous lustre. The crystals show only the very slightest of damage to one or two corners, but this is extremely hard to spot and miraculous for a Baryte specimen of its age. The matrix is comprised of several thin 'leaves' of crystallized Dolomite. An extremely fine historic Cumbrian Baryte which deserves to have its legacy continued within a fine collection.

$4,500.00