Cassiterite

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This large thumbnail to small miniature Cornish Cassiterite specimen is from one of the most famous tin-mining regions in Cornwall - St. Agnes, on the north coast. Many Cassiterite crystals from St. Agnes take the form of four-sided prisms with pronounced pyramidal terminations. Highly distinctive, these are seen throughout historic English collections, particularly that of Philip Rashleigh's (1729-1811) preserved at the Royal Cornwall Museum. This lovely specimen consists of a small bed of broken Cassiterite crystals and Chlorite but at one end stands an almost textbook 1 x 1 cm classic square-sectioned terminated pyramidal Cassiterite crystal, almost black in colour and with a fine resinous lustre. A smaller crystal is attached to one edge of the termination, hence, not quite 'textbook', but still extremely fine. On the back of the specimen are two old typed labels - "Oxide of Tin" and "St. Agnes" similar in style to those cut from Alexander Crichton's (1763-1856) collection auction catalogue and often pasted to specimens, but similar style labels were also used throughout the 19th century in Britain. Ex Malcolm Southwood collection, no. MS 2015.069, but missing its label.