Rutile (rare locality specimen)

Item Description

Here we have a wonderful Rutile specimen from the lesser-known Moreau Claim, which is near the famous Champion Mine, a well-known locality that has produced some of the finest Rutile crystals from any US locale. Moreau specimens are notably rare on the market, and this one has the provenance to validate its origin, as the piece originally belonged to Jim Minette, the renowned collector from California. The 3x5 card that accompanies the piece states that it is believe that Jim personally collected this specimen, which makes sense, as he was a prolific field collector. This showy miniature features a pair of euhedral, very well-formed, lustrous, blocky, dark metallic reddish-brown colored crystals with only a tiny bit of attached matrix. The overall form and quality is excellent, not just for the material but for Rutile as species, as the only other US locality to produce crystals of this size/thickness and quality is Graves Mt, Georgia. A choice specimen from a lesser-seen locale that would make a great addition to any suite of Rutiles, titanium minerals or specimens from California.
Ex George Loud Collection No. 4511 CA.1; 5776 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