Libethenite (ex David Burgess Collection)

Item Description

A classic old time Slovakian Libethenite from the type locality (which used to be called Libethen when it was part of Hungary) featuring rich green color, sharp, well-formed, vitreous, orthorhombic crystals associated with mint green Malachite on a "superb" looking matrix (according to David's note). While there are some contacted crystals, there are still several textbook examples of the Libethenite on this piece, and they are not micros, they are clearing eye-visible measuring up to about 5-6 mm. It's hard to find such attractive euhedral crystals on the species on matrix in today's market. Good Libethenites from the TYPE LOCALITY are always in high demand. From the worldwide collection of David Burgess (1951-2016). David was a prolific species collector from Newington, Connecticut, and the namesake for the extremely rare cobalt arsenate species Burgessite, which he discovered. The piece is accompanied by an old label from Bentley's Minerals, along with a nice hand-written paper about the specimen from David himself, which states he purchased the piece for $350 years ago.