Limonite pseudomorph after Pyrite (ex Swoboda and Phillips Collections)

Item Description

Here we have a wonderful, showy and aesthetic pseudomorph of Limonite replacing Pyrite from this less well-known South Australia specimen area. This is three-dimensional and sculptural stacked cluster of four intergrown lustrous, sharp pyrite cubes with defined pyritohedral modified edges and rust-brown and dark gray color. Exceptional, rare and very fine material from the collection of Dr. Barratt Phillips and originally from the Ed Swoboda Pseudomorph Collection. Ed, who lived from 1917-2013, was one of the United States most successful field collectors. He traveled worldwide and found the world's finest Brazilianites in 1945. Ed purchased the Stewart, Tourmaline Queen and Pala Chief pegmatite mines and was part of the renowned "bluecap" tourmaline discovery in 1972 at the Queen. Later projects included boleite and cumengite from the Amelia Mine in Mexico, famous purple adamites from the Ojuela Mine in 1982 and wulfenite and mimetite from the San Francisco Mine in 1989. He assembled several world-class mineral collections (with the famous Alma Queen rhodochrosite), including a superb pseudomorph collection, started in about 1984 and sold in the late 1990s and dispersed in the early 2000s. This is an outstanding example from the collection. Read Ed's biography in the Mineralogical Record Biographical Archive: http://www.minrec.org/labels.asp?colid=630. NOTE FROM A CUSTOMER: ...the sample is from the Kirkeeks treasure gold mine (aka Nillinghoo). This mine is located 60km due north of Yunta and is famous for limonite after pyrite specimens (https://www.mindat.org/locdetailed-13877.html). The Mine was first discovered in the 19th century and worked intermittently until quite recently. In fact I was a co-owner of a company which attempted to open cut the mine in the 1990s which unfortunately turned out to be a bit of a disaster! Not all was lost as I found what are probably the best limonite after pyrite specimens known from there.