Chalcedony pseudomorph after Baryte(?) (ex Reynolds and Robertson Collections)

Item Description

An interesting pseudomorph labeled as coming from near Fraser, Colorado (close to the Winter Park Ski Resort at the southern end of the Fraser Valley) featuring brick red Chalcedony pseudomorphing after Baryte(?) according to the label. I have my doubts about the Baryte designation, and this could have originally been Anhydrite, as both species have similar shaped crystals. The famous Quartz "casts" from the San Juan Mountains of Colorado were often labeled as replacing Baryte for many years, but everybody now agrees that the original crystals were Anhydrite. A cool specimen from an unlikely locale in the high mountains of Colorado. This piece comes to us from the collection of Bob Reynolds, well-known fossil and mineral expert and former Curator of Earth Sciences at the San Bernardino County Museum in California. Originally the specimen was in the collection of Kay Robertson. Kay was a prominent California collector, who specialized in European classics. She nearly lived 100 years from April 1920 - March 2020. See the article in the March-April, 2007 Mineralogical Record ( https://www.mineralogicalrecord.com/pdfs/Kay%20Robertson%20Collection.pdf ), and the 50+ page article in the German Magazine "Mineralien Welt" November-December 2017.