Vanadinite (Robertson Coll.)

Item Description

Sharp, lustrous, tan, hexagonal vanadinite barrels richly and aesthetically cover the matrix on this showy and excellent small cabinet from the late 1970s early 80s finds at Touissit. The textbook barrels reach 1.4 cm and most have striking and classic hoppered terminations. These were originally marketed as pyromorphites, but testing by the Smithonian Museum proved these to be vanadinite with minor arsenic and that endlichite (arsenian rich vanadinite) should not be used in the description. See the Mineralogical Record article in Vol. 15, No. 6, 1984 for a discussion on this fine and uncommon material. Ex Kay Robertson Collection # 9905 and acquired in Tucson in 1983. Kay is a prominent California collector, who specialized in European classics (see the article in the March-April, 2007 Mineralogical Record and the 50+ page article in the German Magazine "Mineralien Welt" November-December 2017).