Cassiterite (rare locale) (ex Colonel H. W. Lake Collection)

Item Description

A very hard to find specimen of crystallized Cassiterite on matrix from Nigeria! of all places. This piece is clearly an older specimen because it came from an old East Coast collection, and comes with an historic label from the legendary mineral dealer, Hugh A. Ford. Since the label has Ford's New York address, the piece dates to 1946-1957. Additionally, there is and old handwritten label from a man named Colonel H. W. Lake with all of the original locality information. I cannot find a mention of a specific locality with the name "Filani" on it, but if you do a Google search for "Filani Tin Mining Co", you will see their named mentioned in old mining books and journals from around 100 years ago. My guess is that Colonel Lake obtained this piece directly from somebody at the company. For what it's worth, I was able to find another specimen on mindat that makes mention of Lake ( http://www.mindat.org/photo-101238.html ). Lake's label states that the piece hosts "Cassiterite crystals cemented by Calcite to a weathered Granitic rock stained with Limonite". The crystals show cyclic twining with a deep coffee brown hue and measure up to 5 mm across. A well-documented and notably rare specimen for anybody who collects Cassiterite, African minerals or cool antique specimens.