Silver ore with Smaltite (rare - OLD!), ex. Fioravanti

Item Description

A rich and RARE, old-time combination silver ore specimen from a little-known French locale. Dendritic, spinel-twin silver crystal clusters are encased in smaltite on this outstanding sliced specimen. The intricate patterns look like ferns. Smaltite is the arsenic-deficient variety of skutterudite and is quite uncommon worldwide. The isolation of the dendrites in the massive matrix is striking. Crystallized silver and smaltite specimens are extremely rare from any worldwide locality and this is an uncommonly fine, very rich old-time example. Smaltite is not listed in MINDAT for the Pyrenees in either France or Spain, although there is a Gistain in Spain and could be the correct locale. Comes with a "Sons of Emile Deyrolle" label dating from 1896 into the 1900s and a VERY OLD decayed label. A possibly UNIQUE specimen.