Siderite with Galena

Item Description

The Black Cloud Mine in Leadville is one of the most famous specimen-producing localities in the district, well-known for its beautiful golden Barytes and various sulfides and carbonates. This piece is a magnificent, big showy cabinet display specimen featuring dozens of well-formed, compressed rhombic crystals of tan Siderite measuring up to 1.2 cm across, associated with attractive, sharp, steel-grey cubic crystals of Galena measuring up to 1.0 cm on edge, sitting on a matrix containing Galena and Pyrite. Amazingly, most of the crystals are undamaged, and the only real damage is where the piece was separated from the pocket wall. It's almost certainly the best Siderite we've ever had to offer from the locality, not just for the size or the wonderful visual appeal, but the Siderites are fine quality, as opposed to some which can sometimes look "weathered" with a "dusty" appearance on the surface, but not these, they are excellent for the locality. A truly impressive example of this classic and now almost impossible to find material. This piece was originally part of the collection of Lincoln A. Sherk, M.D., (1890s-1969), from Camden New Jersey, who was the founder of Bethel Hospital (now defunct), along with Delaware Valley Earth Science Society.
Ex George Loud Collection No. 14.1.1.3 CO.1; 8242. 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