Witherite

Item Description

Witherite is a barium carbonate mineral, first discovered in the late 1700s, and named in honor of William Withering in 1789. Withering was an English physician and naturalist, who first described the mineral according to entry on mindat.org. Interestingly, for over a couple hundred years, the type locality was said to be Alston Moor, a famous lead-zinc mining district in Cumbria (Cumberland), but a recent post to the mindat.org forums by Tom Cotterell (see https://www.mindat.org/mesg-625213.html ) states, "I have recently published a very detailed article covering the witherite Type Locality issue in Journal of the Russell Society (2022) which explains that there is also evidence to show that Alston Moor was 'fabricated' as the Type Locality and that the real source was Anglezarke in Lancashire. Witherite obviously occurs at Alston Moor, but it appears that it was not recognized as such until the early 19th century, several decades after the mineral was first described.". With that said, the English crystals can be attractive in their form and habit, but the size and quality is far superior in specimens seen from the famous Minerva No. 1 Mine in Southern Illinois. This piece is a fantastic small cabinet display specimen featuring a predominant, sharp, well-formed, translucent, pseudo-hexagonal (orthorhombic) group of Witherite measuring 4.0 cm across, associated with additional crystallized groups of Witherite, along with minor accenting purplish Fluorite and now matrix. I love how the main Witherite group sits prominently atop the specimen. A really choice piece of this world-class material. Valued $3,500.
Ex George Loud Collection No. 14.1.3.2 IL.12; 8852 George (born August 16, 1942) is a well-known mineral collector from Washington, DC and South Carolina respectively, and was a patent lawyer by trade for over 50 years. He assembled one of the great mineral collections in the U.S., comprising worldwide specimens, and in later years he sold the worldwide specimens to focus on minerals of the United States, specifically locality suites with an emphasis on amazing representation of species while still maintaining fine quality. The specimens remarkably range from micros to all the way up to large cabinets in size. We recently acquired most of his impressive 9000+ piece collection, and the VAST majority of these pieces will be offered here in the auctions, as we feel that everyone deserves and equal opportunity at acquiring these important, well-documented and fine quality specimens for their collections.
See: https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/george-loud for more information