Gillespite and Sanbornite (rare Ba-silicates) Al Ordway Coll.

Item Description

A rich and colorful platy vein of lustrous and translucent, rich strawberry-colored gillespite is nicely emplaced on beautifully color contrasting white sugary sanbornite. Gillespite is a rare barium, iron silicate and sanbornite is a rare barium silicate. This is a very rich, colorful, superb piece of the material. Interestingly, it was a gift to Al from well-known San Diego collector, heiress Josephine Scripps, in 1980. She herself was an active field collector and often went to Mexico in search of finding her own minerals, so it is likely she self-collected this. Ex. Al Ordway Collection and is the largest, finest and richest example of the species of the three pieces we obtained rom Al"s Collection.