Stibnite with Gypsum

Item Description

Two different styles of Stibnite are present on this rare Peruvian piece, one distinct style on the top that looks like little firecracker bursts; and a more typical style of thick crystals on the bottom. The top of the specimen features a few dozen "starbursts" of Stibnite composed of very tight divergent sprays of very fine, acicular, both bright and dull metallic gray crystals, in clusters to 1 cm. The interstices between the sprays are infilled with contrasting white to pinkish Gypsum as granular aggregates. In total contrast, the bottom of the piece is consists of the bottom view of larger and more robust divergent Stibnite sprays in which we see the point at which the larger 1 to 1.5 cm, and thicker 2 to 2.5 mm Stibnite crystals diverge and there must be at least a dozen. The space between the crystals on this bottom side is mostly open with only a small amount of tan colored matrix locally. This is a very singular Stibnite piece from Peru!