Celestine (rare locality specimen) (ex Gerry Morvell Collection)

Item Description

These beautiful old Celestines from central New York state are rarely seen on the market today. Specimens came from a roadcut that literally sits off the shoulder of Route 13 about 20 miles southeast of Syracuse. Collecting alongside the road used to be allowed, but now the local police enforce a strict "no collecting" policy, so it's virtually impossible to get new specimens. It's really a shame because these pieces are not only beautiful, but fine quality to boot. This specimen is one of the few cabinet sized pieces of this material that we've ever had to offer and features several soft blue color, sharp, lustrous, well-formed prismatic crystals of Celestine measuring up to 8 mm long, sitting among colorless, gemmy scalenohedral crystals of Calcite sitting on limestone matrix. This piece is in excellent condition, though the periphery is contacted where it was removed from the pocket wall. If you collect East Coast minerals, specimens from New York or simply fine quality examples of well-known species, don't miss out on this one, as there won't be any more of them. From the collection of Gerry Morvell with labels from the collection of Dr. Eugene Sensel and old Ward's label stating the piece was collected in 1950.