Liveingite (incredibly rare)

Item Description

Here we have a wonderful specimen of Liveingite, a ridiculously rare lead arsenic sulfosalt that is only found in five places in the world. Without questions, the finest specimens are found at the world famous Lengenbach Quarry in the Binntal of Switzerland, which happens to be the type locality for the species. This mineral has been known since 1901, but I've only seen a handful of them over the years, and they are a must have for any rare species collector, a fan of Lengenbach minerals or a European / Swiss mineral collector. This piece features a group of fine quality, sharp, brilliant, lustrous, silvery-grey colored, striated prisms of Liveingite measuring up 9 mm with the typical lamellar structure, sitting on marble matrix. These Liveingite, are good sized for the species, as crystals up to 1.0 cm are considered to be incredibly rare. A truly eye-catching and desirable specimen of this incredibly rare species from one of the most prolific species-producing localities in the world (180 species reported from Lengenbach as of the time of this posting).
From the collection of William ("Bill") (1927-2006) and Anne (1928-2021) Cook of Cleveland, Ohio (#3589a) with a label from dealer Horst Burkard. This husband and wife duo were actively involved in the mineral world for many decades. Bill was a PhD geologist, and Anne was a mathematician, and they both were very serious mineral collectors. Bill served for many years as adjunct curator of mineralogy at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Anne was inducted into the Micromounters' Hall of Fame on October 12, 2019. Both Bill and Anne, at various times, served as president both of the Mineralogical Society of Cleveland and of the Micromineral Society of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. The rare barium lithium beryllium phosphate Wilancookite was named in their honor in 2015.