Baumhauerite

$950.00

$40.00 shipping
Seller offers an extended return window of up to 30 days
Ships from USA

Crystal ClassicsFeatured

Tucson, Arizona, USA

7,543 for sale·132 sold

Lengenbach quarry in the Binn Valley, Wallis, Switzerland is one of the most remarkable mineral localities in Europe, if not the world. Bizarrely, it does not present the rich diversity of colours in large displayable specimens that places like Tsumeb, Broken Hill (Australia) and Franklin do, but in its own quietly unassuming way it has knocked out a remarkable 51 Type Species, all mostly in a backdrop of bright white 'marble'. Baumhauerite is one of the ultra-rare lead arsenic sulphide species first found there and described in 1902, and not found anywhere else in comparable crystals even if those crystals are small. This large miniature specimen from the outstanding systematic species collection assembled by brothers Martin and Michael Günther (1951-2007 & 1956-2021) features a prominent, bright metallic grey, 8 mm long, striated prismatic Baumhauerite crystal perched on the classic chalky white Dolomite matrix. In fact, this is two parallel crystals: the main 8 mm long one, and a second, some 4 mm in length following the upper part of the crystal alongside its termination. Both crystals are well formed and nicely terminated.