Galena (classic material)

Item Description

The Fletcher Mine in Missouri is probably best known for its beautiful "Spinel"-twinned Galena crystals, but years ago it produced some excellent cubes, and this piece is one of the best examples of said material that we've had to offer in the auctions. This piece is a showy and fine quality large miniature sized piece featuring a sharp, well-formed, euhedral, silvery-grey metallic cube measuring 4.2 cm associated with smaller Galena crystals showing a distinctive octahedral habit. The main cube does have tiny octahedral modifications on the corners, but the fact that there are clear octahedral crystals on the side is odd, as you rarely see two distinctly different habits together on the same piece like this. No major damage on the front/display side and it's actually even partially crystallized on the base where it was separated from the pocket wall. A really choice example from this well-known locality.
From the worldwide mineral collection of Albert Lewis Kidwell (January 1, 1919 - August 16, 2008). Al was a well-known mineral collector and research geologist with Carter Oil Company and later Exxon Oil Company in Houston, Texas. The phosphate species Kidwellite was named in his honor in 1974 ( https://www.mindat.org/photo-326405.html ).