Petrified Wood with pseudomorphic cubic Quartz (ex Kay Robertson Collection)

Item Description

A rarely seen specimen simply labeled as only coming from the Red Deer River in Alberta, Canada featuring an elongated specimen of petrified wood with (according to the label) pseudomorphic cubic Quartz. Upon close inspection, I can actually see tiny crystals, that certainly appear to be cubic, but they are actually rhombic (pseudocubic) as the angles of the rhombohedron differ only very little from that of a 90-degree cube. Some of the Quartz is cryptocrystalline and translucent with a soft blue hue to, and this is typically what we would call Chalcedony. An interesting and certainly unusual specimen that probably wasn't found via actual mining or digging, but was most likely found on the ground or along the banks of the river. Ex Kay Robertson Collection (#10296). 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.