"Tavistockite" (Apatite) (ex Kay Robertson Collection)

Item Description

This material gets its name from the first locality where it was found, Tavistock, Devonshire, England. With that said, there are actually two known kinds of "Tavistockite", one found in Tavistock that subsequently turned out to be Wavellite, and another from Cornwall, which was later discovered to be Apatite. This particular specimen is a piece of the Cornish material, featuring pale yellow, massive, "lattice"-like, almost "cavernous" formations free of matrix. Ex Kay Robertson Collection (#10742). Kay was a prominent California collector, who specialized in European classics. She nearly lived 100 years from April 1920 - March 2020. See the article in the March-April, 2007 Mineralogical Record ( https://www.mineralogicalrecord.com/pdfs/Kay%20Robertson%20Collection.pdf ), and the 50+ page article in the German Magazine "Mineralien Welt" November-December 2017.