Milarite (old - Type Locality) ex Harvard Coll.

Item Description

Milarite is an uncommon beryllium silicate and this fine and rich old-timer is from the famous Type Locality in Switzerland. Glassy, water-clear, GEMMY hexagonal prisms to about 8 mm richly cover a portion of the matrix along with small, glassy, smoky quartz crystals. This is a very rich and uncommon specimen from this famous locale. Ex Harvard University, and later the George Elling Collection, and it comes with an old James Gregory label. Gregory was a very prominent London dealer in the second half of the 19th Century, and this label dates from 1874-1898! His business survives today under new owners, still located near the BMNH. A documented old type lcoality Milarite is an amazing thing to get ahold of. As a note, they were originally reported as being from the nearby Val Mila to hide the true origin (and source of money) of the material. Hence the species perhaps should have been called Giuvite. See MINDAT: http://www.mindat.org/min-2710.html which states" Named by Kenngott (1870) for the Val Mila, Grischun, Switzerland, where the material of his first description was erroneously said to come from."