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Baryte with Dolomite
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The ArkenstoneFeatured
This sharp, spearpoint, tabular baryte from the historic mines in Cumbria, England constitutes a classic, old-time and superb parallel group of doubly terminated crystals.They are DISTINCTIVE finds from the classic British ore mines in the mid to late 1800s, now found in every major museum and in the old collections of Jack Halpern's vintage. It has a beautiful blue hue with glassy luster and nearly perfect terminations atop; with only a trace of rubbing on the backside. One major Baryte crystal at one end and several somewhat smaller crystals on the other end are all in flattened, parallel growth both out to the sides and somewhat to the back. Those at the sides are doubly terminated and intact. The very bottom tips, as standing up, are not fully complete and so this best displays vertically with the more pristine top tips shooting up. This handsome piece is almost five inches long and three and a half inches in width! The barytes are translucent in the body of the crystals with more transparent terminations. There is one small group of cream colored, saddle-shaped dolomite crystals on the front of the piece and then two large dolomite clusters of similar character on the back of the piece. This is a superb and classic example! The labels, the provenance, that is a bonus: Ex. Carl Bosch Collection (which went to the Smithsonian, and some duplicates were later traded out). Walt Lidstrom sold this to his friend Jack Halpern in the early 1970s, and it was one of Jack's first major classics. It retains both the Smithsonian and Bosch labels (1874-1940), of which you can read a great deal about. He was one of the greatest collectors of all time, with emphasis on the best quality money could buy (he essentially invented modern fertilizer that feeds the world...so money was no object).
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