Rutile (twin) (classic East Coast locality)

Item Description

The Rutile specimens from Parkesburg, in Chester County, Pennsylvania are among the most famous examples of the species from any East Coast locality in the United States. The iconic twins are celebrated in old US mineralogy literature, and you can find some excellent examples in East Coast museums like Harvard, Carnegie and the Smithsonian. These specimens are easily identified by their gentle reddish-brown hue and classic twinning habit, which ranges from cyclic twins to "knee"-shaped (sometimes referred to as geniculated) twins. This piece is a nice representative example of this material featuring several attractive, heavily striated, semi-lustrous, somewhat metallic, dark reddish colored twinned crystal faces that can be seen on several sides of the piece. The specimen is not without damage, as there are some contacted areas on several sides, but the crystallization is still very pleasing from several viewing angles. You never see these on the market, mostly because they were collected in the early to mid 1800s, but as far as I can tell, not too many of them survived. The listing on mindat.org for the locality states that specimens were destroyed and, "worked up by manufacturers of dental supplies, for coloring artificial teeth". Don't miss out on this one, as you never know when another will come around.