Ferruginous Quartz (old & rare style from Cornwall)

Item Description

An impressive, sculptural and aesthetic large old-time oxide-included quartz specimen from the China Clay Pits in Cornwall, probably mid 1800s vintage. A 4.8 cm, doubly terminated quartz crystal dominates the large curved vug in hefty gossan matrix lined with sparkly tiny quartz points. Smaller quartz crystal at the top are a nice accent. This is a striking, large and rare style of quartz from one of the numerous Cornwall China Clay Pits listed by MINDAT: 15 China Clay Pits are listed by MINDAT and many were active at the time the Cornish ore mines were, and produced these very different kinds of specimens even though located nearby. You sometimes get them mixed in with mineral collections today, though most were simply discarded and thrown away because the miners there had a different culture and seem not to have fed into the mineral collecting community as much as the ore miners did.