Galena (slight ''melted'' looking crystals) with Quartz (ex Bob Reynolds Collection)

Item Description

At first glance, I thought this piece might be from Dalnegorsk, Russia or Madan, Bulgaria, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out it's from the Huarón District in Peru. The unusual habit / style of certain Galena crystals on the piece is what immediately draws your attention. While many of the crystals are very sharp, bright and lustrous, several of them have a slight muted luster, with an oddly "melted" appearance. It's almost as if the crystals were made of wax that had been left in the heat for too long. This is not unheard of for Galena, but it's certainly not common, and make for a great juxtaposition against the more splendent sharper crystals. Associated WATER CLEAR prisms of colorless Quartz along with minor greenish-brown Sphalerite (on the back) can be seen on the piece for a nice touch. I love the strong gun-metal grey hue of the Galena crystals, which glow with a bright silvery luster when rotated in the light. The largest Galena measures 1.0 cm across. Classic and desirable combination material from the late 1980s-early 1990s production peak. No major damage anywhere on the display side. From the collection of Robert (Bob) Reynolds who passed in August of 2020. Bob was a well-known fossil and mineral expert and former Curator of Earth Sciences at the San Bernardino County Museum in California. The rare phyllomanganate-chromate species Reynoldsite was named in his honor in 2011.