Ettringite

Item Description

This is an exceptional lustrous and translucent, very bright lemon-yellow cluster of a very rare species, we seldom see in such fine form. The piece is like a sculpture, and features a terminated prismatic hexagonal crystal growing out of a single double-terminated prismatic crystal of comparable thickness and length. This seems of late 1980s vintage. A bit of hausmannite is the black matrix at contact of the two. It has an iconic geometry and combined with the color, is simply a trophy piece - enough said! Exhibited: One of the 35 specimens that together won the 2010 Paul Desautel Trophy for Best Mineral Case in Competition at the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show (against cases of cabinet pieces...which shows you how good these had to be piece for piece!); and The 2012/49th Munich Gem and Mineral Show’s African Mineral theme, by special invitation on African mineral thumbnails, October 2012, with show label. Specimen also displayed in, “The Best of the Best: Prize Minerals from the Vaults of Arizona Collectors”, held at the University of Arizona’s Flandrau Science Center & Planetarium, from February 8 to December 23, 2014, with label. Illustrated (Mauthner photo): Rocks & Minerals, African Beauties, 2016; 91(4): 309, Minerals: The Collector’s Newspaper, 2014; 8: 15, The Mineralogical Record, Arizona Mineral Collections, 2013; 44(3): 204. And, finally, published in Mineralogical Record, Refined Elegance: The Small Treasures of Mineralogy, November 2022. Purchased from an old collection being sold by Patrick Mayer (Cape Town Matrix Crystals, South Africa), February 7, 2010. This is one of the truly iconic items in the collection.