Titanite (var: Keilhauite) (old specimen)

Item Description

Originally Keilhauite has a valid species, first described from Buo, Tromoysund, Arendal, Aust-Agder, Norway by A. Erdmann 1844. Interestingly enough the same material was independently described and named Yttrotitanite by T. Scheerer also in 1844. It turns out that neither one of those name would hold up as the material eventually became known as a Yttrium-bearing variety of Titanite. This piece is from the type locality for the material and is essentially a solid black crystalline mass with no real defined faces, but rather it's just a large section of a single crystal. The piece comes to us from an old East Coast collection with a label from the legendary New York mineral dealer, Hugh A. Ford. Since the label has Ford's New York address it dates to 1946-1957, so we know the piece is at least 60 years old, and more than likely well over 100 years old.