Pyromorphite (superb rare locality specimen)

Item Description

Leadville was one of the great mining districts in Colorado history. As a matter of fact, the population number from the 1880 census showed that Leadville had the second highest population in Colorado (14,820 people), and there was talk at the time that Leadville was in consideration to be the state capital. With that said, the rich gold and silver deposits in Leadville is what made the area famous, but there's a lot more to the mineralogy surrounding the town, including some of the best secondary ore minerals in the state. Pyromorphite is rare from Leadville, simply put, the crystals are often micros and I can count the number of pieces I've seen on one hand. With that said, this is unequivocally the finest Pyromorphite from we've ever seen from Leadville. A rich coverage of bright lime green colored, lustrous, thin prismatic crystals measuring up to about 5 mm sit atop the grey host rock matrix. The abundance of fine quality, eye-visible crystals is breathtaking for the locality. It's the kind of specimen you could only find in such a deep comprehensive collection like this one, and you're likely not to see another like it from Leadville on the market again anytime soon.
It's impossible to ascertain a fair market value for such a specimen, because there's literally nothing out there for comparison. It's also more than just a locality piece, it's an excellent Pyromorphite from Colorado, or most other states for that matter and is one of the best pieces in this particular set in my opinion for what it is. The piece was formerly in the collection of Harlan Crouse.
Ex George Loud Collection No. 41.7.2.1 CO.1; 7334 George (born August 16, 1942) is a well-known mineral collector from Washington, DC and South Carolina respectively, and was a patent lawyer by trade for over 50 years. He assembled one of the great mineral collections in the U.S., comprising worldwide specimens, and in later years he sold the worldwide specimens to focus on minerals of the United States, specifically locality suites with an emphasis on amazing representation of species while still maintaining fine quality. The specimens remarkably range from micros to all the way up to large cabinets in size. We recently acquired most of his impressive 9000+ piece collection, and the VAST majority of these pieces will be offered here in the auctions, as we feel that everyone deserves and equal opportunity at acquiring these important, well-documented and fine quality specimens for their collections.
See: https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/george-loud for more information