Baryte (late 1800s)

Item Description

This Baryte crystal is doubly-terminated, and quite unusual in its sharp form and its phantom! The crystal is perched on a small bit of calcite matrix. Aesthetic pieces of Baryte from these mines, in this size range, are simply hard to come by, today - they date to the mid or late 1800s and damage accumulates over time unless they are locked up in museums (as this one was, ex Harvard). The label indicates a date of 1893-1898, based on George English's business locations (courtesy of Mineralogical Record label archives: http://www.minrec.org/labels.asp?page=3&colid=319) Ex. George Elling collection. Joe Budd photos. Valued $2500 by the previous owner.