Description
Detailed Description
This stilbite-Ca specimen from the personal collection of Rock Currier, no. 2053, and was personally collected by him in 1973, in just his second year travelling to India. His collection label includes this description and story:
“A crust of iron-stained white stilbite crystals, mostly small but some up to about 1 cm, that formed a cast after calcite. Collected the specimen and it has never been cleaned very well. I found it in a near-surface pocket ina road cut where the road was under construction. I reached deep into the pocket to get it and felt something cool twitch. I thought it was a cobra, jumped out of my skin and fell ass over tea cups down the bank.”
Although not noted in the label, I believe that one corner may have been either reinforced or repaired – hard to tell, and not visible at all from the front.
About Rock Currier’s Collection – India Specimens
Rock Currier was a remarkable person and highly influential force in the world of mineral collecting for many decades. Beginning in the early 1970s, he travelled the world in search of mineral specimens and he was a pioneering mineral dealer in many countries. He grew his mineral business while at the same time building an impressive personal mineral collection. Rock was also a manager of – and a prolific contributor to – mindat.org, sharing his knowledge and expertise with the mineral community worldwide.
After Rock had begun his company (named Jewel Tunnel Imports, after the famous British railway “Jewel Tunnel” on the route from Mumbai to Pune, cutting through the zeolite “jewel” pockets), he travelled to India for mineral specimens. Over the years, he acquired and sold large volumes of Indian specimens, and he kept a few for his collection along the way.
Rock’s first trip to India was in 1972. The specimens in this update are just a few from Rock’s personal India collection and most date to the early years of his dealing in Indian minerals. Rock was a conscientious keeper of labels and information, such that all of his collection specimens were labeled with as much information as he had about them and they all bear catalogue numbers. Many also include a tiny label with the information affixed right to the specimen. Rock also wrote additionally about each specimen, and many typed specimen labels include this information.
