Baryte - unusual USA locale ex Keith Williams

Item Description

The Montreal Mine is a famous old iron mine that produced specimens, mostly of hematite as far as we ever see, with a few calcites occasionally on the market as well. They date from the mid 1900s and , even if they turn up now, it is rarely. Three large, tabular crystals, to 5 cm in length, of lustrous and translucent, tan-colored barite are intergrown in a fan pattern. This is a rare, historic locality piece from this famous old iron mine. We seldom see any so well preserved and aesthetic, for sale. In fact, I cannot recall seeing another as good for sale, now that we think about it here. This is from the Keith Williams collection. It is so difficult to value something like this, with no comparables out there. If it were English, and it does look quite similar to old English material from teh 1800s, it would be worth $2500 or so. Is it worth a bit less because it is modern, yet a bit more because it is from Wisconsin and we never see these for sale?