Ludlamite with Quartz and Siderite - image 1

Ludlamite with Quartz and Siderite - image 2

Ludlamite with Quartz and Siderite

Unknown Owner

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A subtle but significant small miniature specimen from this famous old Cornish locality, these are now so rare that I cannot recall having seen but one other in the last decades. They were, apparently, collected by either the late, great collector Richard Barstow or one of his friends in the 1960s, and then never seen again. While some old specimens exist, these are considered very fine for the species from England, and truly unique in ludlamite from any locality at all, for the contrast to a sparkly quartz matrix. The matrix is a rolling plate, dimensional and translucent. For that matter, the whole specimen is translucent. These sharp crystals reach 9 mm in size and are so beautifully displayed on matrix! This came to us in an old collection that had many labels missing or in disarray, and I think could have been easily lost to collecting and mislabelled if I had not caught it. I was lucky enough to have seen and handled only a few in the past: one in Lindsay Greenbank's collection; and another offered for sale many years ago by Dan Weinrich from the Barstow collection. The style is so immediately unique, I recognized it immediately (lucky!).