Leucoxene pseudomorph after Anatase (ex Reynolds and Robertson Collections)

Item Description

A really interesting an rarely seen specimen of "Leucoxene" pseudomorphing after Anatase from Brazil. The given locality on the label is "Paidhinho", but I can't find a listing for this locale in any database. Now it should be noted that "Leucoxene" used to be a valid mineral species, but has been discredited, and is defined on mindat.org as, "An alteration product and mixture of Fe-Ti oxides, including titanite, perovskite, titanian magnetite, but especially ilmenite. Most 'leucoxene' is anatase or rutile". So with that said, this piece is essentially a pseudo-octahedral Anatase crystal that has altered on the surface. I've never seen one from Brazil before, so this is certainly a rare locality piece if nothing else. This piece comes to us from the collection of Bob Reynolds, well-known fossil and mineral expert and former Curator of Earth Sciences at the San Bernardino County Museum in California. Originally the specimen was in the collection of Kay Robertson (#9997). Kay was a prominent California collector, who specialized in European classics. She nearly lived 100 years from April 1920 - March 2020. See the article in the March-April, 2007 Mineralogical Record ( https://www.mineralogicalrecord.com/pdfs/Kay%20Robertson%20Collection.pdf ), and the 50+ page article in the German Magazine "Mineralien Welt" November-December 2017.