Baryte

Item Description

A lovely and showy golden Baryte specimen from this classic locality in the Massif Central of France. This piece features a few pronounced, sharp, well-formed, lustrous, gemmy prisms measuring up to 5.3 cm, free of matrix. The crystals have some clay inclusions on the back creating a lighter beige hue, for a nice two-tone effect. The crystals are fairly gemmy when backlit. The piece is largely crystallized all over, even on the bottom, and it sits quite nicely on its own without the aid of a base or clay. The rightmost crystal has a ding on the corner, so the piece is not 100% pristine, but still very good shape and quite attractive in person. a If you're a fan of worldwide Barytes, French minerals or you just like attractive crystal formations, this is something you're not likely to find anywhere else on the market, so don't miss out.
From the collection of the long time, beloved, well-known French field collector, Paul Zerfass. Zerfass built this worldwide collection over nearly 50 years, many of which were personally collected. A biography featuring specimens from his collection (along with his face on the cover) is in the May - June 2017 issue of French mineral magazine, Le Règne Minéral. We have a .pdf copy of the article for anybody interested in reading it (though it's mostly in French). Just drop us a line and know that you'd like to have it.