Iridosmine in antique vial ex. Samuel Ashmead coll.

Item Description

A very interesting historical object, this! It consists of several hundred 1mm and smaller, platy, placer nuggets of so-called "iridosmine". Pure iridosmine as a species is an iridium-rich osmium. However, this material has been found to have great variety in its makeup from piece to piece and individual nuggets may be nearly pure osmium, pure iridium, or a mix in some proportion. These grains come in a corked vial with its original wax seal intact, and labelled #132 atop. The label reads " iridosmine - Russia, Ashmead") - i.e. from the Sam Ashmead Collection which became part of the core of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences (circa late 1800s). This collection was bought by a competing dealership and the specimen here sold after addition of this "assumed" locality information, given the age and source of the pieces (and certainly it IS Russian in any case). It retains their dealer label, with a $2000 price tag. an APPROXIMATE volume is just under 1 cubic centimeter