Witherite (fine crystals)

Item Description

Some of the finest crystallized examples of the barium carbonate species Witherite ever found are those from Southern Illinois. The crystals are very good sized for the species, along with being well-formed showing beautiful stepped faces and soft golden hues making them instantly recognizable among mineral collectors. Witherite is fairly difficult to find in any capacity, especially in crystals of this size and quality. This small cabinet sized specimen features a handful of few beautiful, pseudohexagonal (orthorhombic) crystals of translucent, pale golden colored Witherite measuring 4.2 cm long with minor purple Fluorite and white Baryte. There a few small bruises that can be seen, but overall, the display side of the specimen is in fine shape. It's quite rare to find a specimen with a good quality and larger-than-average Witherites like this, and I love the arrangement of the specimen. A great example of this now incredibly hard to find high quality material. The piece was formerly in the collection of Dr. William F. Tatu, a radiologist from Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, and Joe and Jean Dauge of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Valued $5,000-$6,000.
Ex George Loud Collection No. 14.1.3.2 IL.11; 8217 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