Prehnite (classic material)

Item Description

A nice miniature / small cabinet Prehnite specimen from the O & G Quarry in Woodbury, Connecticut, a well-known trap rock quarry that has produced some attractive zeolites and associated minerals. The Prehnites from this quarry are distinctive, beautiful and well-known to collectors for their range of colors and desirable forms. This piece features a coverage of highly lustrous, soft peachy-yellow colored "balls" of Prehnite measuring up to 1.2 cm across sitting on basalt matrix. If you look closely you can see there are a few spots of GREEN Prehnite on the lower portions of the specimen, which is not unheard of from this locality, but rarely seen in other Prehnites outside of Woodbury in my experience. The Prehnite "balls" are undamaged on the display side, save the periphery where the piece was removed from the pocket wall. A beautiful and now fairly hard to find example of this classic material.
This specimen comes from the renowned mineral dealer, Charles ("Charlie") Locke Key (1935-2021) who loved Prehnite, and had a good worldwide collection of specimens. Charlie will be remembered among other things as arguably the most prolific mineral dealer of the second half of the 20th century. He's also one of the few people in history to have TWO mineral specimens named in his honor: Keyite and Ludlockite.