Brookite on Quartz (classic material)

Item Description

A classic old-time matrix display specimen of the famous crystals of Brookite from Magnet Cove, Arkansas. A 1.0 cm, highly lustrous, very sharp, well-formed, pseudo-octahedral, "pagoda"-esque crystal group of Brookite sits aesthetically on white-grey colored Quartz matrix. Very tiny imperfections on the Brookite can be see with a loupe, but overall it's a very showy and eye-catching example of these notably different looking Brookite crystals from this famous locality. This piece comes from the personal collection of Colorado mining legend, Dave Bergman, the maternal grandfather of Brian Kosnar. Dave is now retired from mining, but he worked for decades in various mines underground in Colorado, as a miner, mechanic, engineer, shift boss and foreman. His biggest claim to fame is that he was the foreman and the primary person in charge of mining and specimen recovery at the Sweet Home Mine in Colorado in the 1970s alongside his son-in-law, Rich Kosnar. This project what was the FIRST ever operation for specimen recovery at this historic locality. A full-page photograph of Dave can be seen mining underground at the Sweet Home in on page 58 of Peter Bancroft's book "Gem and Crystal Treasures".