Hemimorphite (old , circa 1900) ex K. Williams

Item Description

Sharp and lustrous, small gemmy crystals of Hemimorphite from one of the more antique of American classic localities for mining, the Granby district of Missouri, make a really nice small cabinet piece with actually very rare aesthetics quality for this material. Normally simply small crystals in massive ugly rock or plates, this is unusual in that it is a nice, pretty, sparkling presentation plate that makes for a good display specimen! Originally labelled as Calamine, The bladed crystals and weight making it clear that this is not a smithsonite . This is almost certainly from the Beer Cellar Mine, although it is possible it could be another mine nearby at the time. In this era of the late 1800s, these were all labeled as CALAMINE, mixing up smithsonite and hemimorphite together. Note older labels which say (and I would believe) that this is from the AMNH - the American Museum in NYC which was indeed known to have pieces from here. For time ever after, these old specimens are often mislabelled therefore. A rare piece, and usualy such specimens sell for $1000-2000 if and when they turn up. For more on this ancient locality (ancient by USA standards, anyhow), see MINDAT which refers us to: Foote, W.M. (1895) Note on the Occurrence of Leadhillite Pseudomorphs at Granby, Missouri. American Journal of Science, 3rd series, 296, 99-100. ex Keith Williams personal collection (Keith is a retired dealer, known for his taste in aesthetic miniatures, USA classics, and Colorado material. He was one of the first to bring out Bulgarian material in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and a dealer for perhaps 50 years. ) Accoding to WIKI: Calamine is a historic name for an ore of zinc. The name calamine was derived from lapis calaminaris, a Latin corruption of Greek cadmia (καδμία), the old name for zinc ores in general. The name of the Belgian town of Kelmis, La Calamine in French, which was home to a zinc mine, comes from this. In the 18th and 19th centuries large ore mines could be found near the German village of Breinigerberg.

During the early 19th century it was discovered that what had been thought to be one ore was actually two distinct minerals:

Zinc carbonate ZnCO3 or smithsonite and
Zinc silicate Zn4Si2O7(OH)2·H2O or hemimorphite.
Although chemically and crystallographically quite distinct, the two minerals exhibit similar massive or botryoidal external form[1][2] and are not readily distinguished without detailed chemical or physical analysis. The first person to separate the minerals was the British chemist and mineralogist James Smithson in 1803.[3] In the mining industry the term calamine has been historically used to refer to both minerals indiscriminately.

In mineralogy calamine is no longer considered a valid term. It has been replaced by smithsonite and hemimorphite in order to distinguish it from the pinkish mixture of zinc oxide (ZnO) and iron(III) oxide (Fe2O3) used in calamine lotion.