Description

Large single barite crystal with several small sharp additional crystals intergrown alongside. With great lustre and total freedom from any damage at all from the front, this is a really nice specimen. What is most striking about it is that it has strange preferential zoning – very cool. It appears as though during the growth of the crystal, lime adhered selectively to some but not all faces (well, looks like a super-fine clay and am not sure of the composition of the sediment, but the quarry is operated for lime). This grey inclusion is all entirely inside this crystal, not at surface as with some from this locality – surfaces of the crystal faces are nice and bright. The back of the specimen (including the top termination) are contacted with a bit of chipping and growth arrested by the limestone – no issue from the display side.

For the photos, I got tired of trying to control the lustre so carefully – so with apologies to all photographic sensitivities (and admitting that the third photo is not a quality photograph) I decided to let ‘er rip, and show the lustre.

Great piece!