Gypsum (GEM crystals) (ex David Burgess Collection)

Item Description

A beautiful miniature specimen from the famous Lily Mine in Peru featuring many sharp, well-formed, glassy, WATER CLEAR, colorless monoclinic crystals of Gypsum (var: "Selenite") measuring up to 1.8 in a beautiful "star"-shaped formation. Several of the crystals are in superb condition with goreous terminations and absolute GEM interiors. There is a bit of attached golden colored pocket clay, which is partially embedded in some of the Gypsum crystals for a nice touch, but this caused a few of the Gypsums to either be contacted or have an interrupted growth. The piece is crystallized all the way around, and while I can't call it a complete "floater", it's still very good quality and beautiful from several angles. BETTER IN PERSON! Very difficult to photograph. This material predates the famous pieces that were found with Atacamite inclusions about 20 years ago, but VERY few of this type were found. From the worldwide collection of David Burgess (1951-2016) with a label from dealer Russ Behnke. David was a prolific species collector from Newington, Connecticut, and the namesake for the extremely rare cobalt arsenate species Burgessite, which he discovered.