Alunite (''floater'' specimen) (ex Bill and Anne Cook Collection)

Item Description

A beautiful and rarely seen specimen of Alunite from Death Valley. The piece is a complete "floater", fully crystallized all around showing beautiful stepped trigonal faces everywhere. The color ranges from a soft pink hue on one corner, to an off-white / grey shade throughout the rest of the piece. Fine quality all around, and arguably the best quality specimen of Alunite that we've had to offer in the auctions from any locality in California. From the collection of William ("Bill") (1927-2006) and Anne (1928-2021) Cook of Cleveland, Ohio. This husband and wife duo were actively involved in the mineral world for many decades. Bill was a PhD geologist, and Anne was a mathematician, and they both were very serious mineral collectors. Bill served for many years as adjunct curator of mineralogy at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Anne was inducted into the Micromounters' Hall of Fame on October 12, 2019. Both Bill and Anne, at various times, served as president both of the Mineralogical Society of Cleveland and of the Micromineral Society of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Anne was inducted into the mi The rare barium lithium beryllium phosphate Wilancookite was named in their honor in 2015.