large Okenite, Gyrolite & Calcite geode (old style ex Kidwell Coll.)

Item Description

Snow-white puffballs of soft-to-the-touch fur-like Okenite hairs are aesthetically clustered in the deep pocket of the impressive sculptural large basalt vug. You can see sections of gray to brown Calcite crystals at the left edge of the roof of the vug and below on the floor next to the Okenite balls. The vug is covered with crusts of contrasting yellow-green Gyrolite, that coats the myriad of small Calcite crystals that line the vug. Natural Okenite "hairballs", such as this are unique in the world and this is a really good large pocket with aesthetics and sculptural quality. Most of them were found and brought to market from near Pune, the older quarries worked in the 1980s and early 1990s, and now under parking lots and buildings. 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. A Mineral World classic. Valued at $2000-2500