Strontianite on Calcite (ex David Burgess Collection)

Item Description

This specimen came labeled as coming from the Black Rock Mine (Russ Behnke label), an old locality predating discoveries at later and richer mines in the Kalahari Manganese Field. With that said, this is a great association piece featuring attractive radial "sprays" of white Strontianite measuring up to 8 mm across which are beautifully sprinkled atop a layer of Calcite that has a distinctive lavender hue on matrix. Both the Strontianite and Calcite fluoresce beautiful as you can see. No major damage anywhere, and very showy with good three-dimensional appeal! From the worldwide collection of David Burgess (1951-2016) accompanied by a label from the aforementioned Russ Behnke. David was a prolific species collector from Newington, Connecticut, and the namesake for the extremely rare cobalt arsenate species Burgessite, which he discovered.