Benstonite coating Calcite

Item Description

Benstonite is not a species that is often seen in display quality specimens, but the Minerva No. 1 Mine produced some excellent examples, which are often seen in association with Calcite. This wonderful showy specimen featuring "stacked" groups of compressed rhombohedral Calcite of a very pale golden hue, coated by off-white colored Benstonite The largest Calcite aggregate measures to about 2.0 cm. Minor damage can be seen, as a few of the groups are contacted, but overall it's a highly presentable and notably eye-catching piece of this fairly rare material. The piece also sits quite well on its own without the aid of a base or clay. This specimen was originally part of the Ross Lillie collection, along with Dr. William Tatu (a pathologist from Stroudsburg, PA) and came to George through Joe Dague.
Ex George Loud Collection No. 14.2.3.1 IL.6; 9594 George (born August 16, 1942) is a well-known mineral collector from Washington, DC and South Carolina respectively, and was a patent lawyer by trade for over 50 years. He assembled one of the great mineral collections in the U.S., comprising worldwide specimens, and in later years he sold the worldwide specimens to focus on minerals of the United States, specifically locality suites with an emphasis on amazing representation of species while still maintaining fine quality. The specimens remarkably range from micros to all the way up to large cabinets in size. We recently acquired most of his impressive 9000+ piece collection, and the VAST majority of these pieces will be offered here in the auctions, as we feel that everyone deserves and equal opportunity at acquiring these important, well-documented and fine quality specimens for their collections.
See: https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/george-loud for more information