selections from the JOHN WHITE MINERAL COLLECTION OF RARE SPECIES

selections from the
JOHN WHITE MINERAL COLLECTION OF RARE SPECIES

John White lived in Seattle, Washington, and spent decades building an extensive collection of minerals including large suites of rarities and locality pieces. He seemed to want to try to get one of everything, even if a micro! And seeing the specimens, I think he came closer to success than most. The collection was sold to Bart Cannon, and at the Seattle Mineral Market Show I recently had the chance to go through several thousand of his specimens and select pieces that were unusual, rare, or otherwise interesting for this eclectic update. (NOTE: this is not the same illustrious collector also named "John White" , who worked as a curator at the Smithsonian and founded the Mineralogical Record )

US$ € EURO ¥ YEN £ POUND CAN$ AUS$
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page 1 / 6 - 77 specimens selected - next - bottom - back to the Galleries

JWHITE-79 - Metavauxite, Paravauxite - $ 100
Siglo Veinte Mine, Llallagua, Potos� Department, Bolivia
thumbnail, 2.1 x 0.9 x 0.9 cm

ex. John White

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A fine elongated crystal spray of metavauxite, with a few sharp, individually more robust paravauxite crystals sticking out to the side. This looks great from the front, but has a little damage in the back to the termination, part of which is not present, hence the low price. But it LOOKS like a much more pricey thumbnail example, of this beautiful and very rare species. TYPE LOCALE!

JWHITE-73 - Leucophosphite and Hureaulite - $ 750
White Elephant Mine, Cicero Peak, Pringle, Custer District, Custer Co., South Dakota, USA
small cabinet, 9.8 x 5.4 x 3.4 cm

ex. John White

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Professor WL Roberts, THE noted authority on phosphates of the amazingly rich and varied deposits in Custer County, sold this to John White at Seattle Show in 1971. On the back of White's label, he notes that " Prof. Roberts says that this is one of the three best known specimens of Leucophosphite". The large, sharp brown crystals are robust and stereotypic for the species, and are not the typical micros! Whether that holds true still today, I am ot 100% sure about. However, surfing th eimage gallery on MINDAT shows that most exmaples are micros, or clusters of micros to 7mm. These SHARP, euhedral, obvious and eye-visible crystals individually reahc 3 mm or so. They sit perched in a very interesting matrix of finely reticulated heureaulite crystals which cross the protected cavity in this rock, in which the leucophosphite has grown.

JWHITE-68 - Curetonite - $ 125
Redhouse Barite Mine, Potosi District, Humboldt Co., Nevada, USA
small cabinet, 5.6 x 3.7 x 2.9 cm

ex. John White

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This specimen, sold by rarities dealer John Metteer to John White, hosts two very minute but eye-visible smears of green on one face�and that, my friends, is actually a pretty good representative example of this ultra-rare species named after dealer and collector Forrest Cureton. This is the TYPE and ONLY locale for the species, which is a complex titanium bearing phospahte.

JWHITE-65 - Gehlenite - $ 100
Monzoni Mts, Fassa Valley, Trento Province, Italy
miniature, 4.3 x 3.7 x 2.2 cm

ex. John White

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A nice miniature featuring SHARP Pseudocubic crystals of gehlenite to 6mm, from the TYPE LOCALITY for this calcium aluminosilicate species

JWHITE-62 - Parisite - $ 325
Snowbird Mine, Mineral Co., Montana, USA
miniature, 2.8 x 0.7 x 0.6 cm

ex. John White

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A stereotypic, elongated crystal of parisite, from this excellent locality for the species

JWHITE-61 - Chrysocolla pseudo after Azurite - $ 75
Kennicott Pit, Ray Mine, Pinal County, Arizona, USA
thumbnail, 2.1 x 1.1 x 1.1 cm

ex. John White

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Chrysocolla pseudo after Azurite from Kennicott Pit, Ray Mine, Pinal County, Arizona, USA [db_pics/new09/sea61a.jpg]

Chrysocolla pseudo after Azurite from Kennicott Pit, Ray Mine, Pinal County, Arizona, USA [db_pics/new09/sea61a.jpg]

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Chrysocolla pseudo after Azurite from Kennicott Pit, Ray Mine, Pinal County, Arizona, USA [db_pics/new09/sea61c.jpg]

Chrysocolla pseudo after Azurite from Kennicott Pit, Ray Mine, Pinal County, Arizona, USA [db_pics/new09/sea61c.jpg]

A very cute, pastel blue thumbnail of this rare replacement, showing classic splayed crystals.

JWHITE-58 - Spessartine - $ 40
Polk County, Tennessee, USA
miniature, 3.6 x 2.2 x 1.8 cm

ex. John White

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A 1 cm garnet in schist, from an unusual locality.

JWHITE-52 - Fraipontite - $ 100
Laurium, Attika, Greece
thumbnail, 1.4 x 1.0 x 0.9 cm

ex. John White

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An old specimen in a micromount box which hosts several rich pockets of pearly white, sub-mm fraipontite crystals associated with green smithsonite. This is a rare zinc aluminosilicate species

JWHITE-53 - Heulandite - $ 200
Berufj�rdur, Iceland
small cabinet, 6.5 x 5.1 x 3.2 cm

ex. John White

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Extremely lustrous, vitreous, just plain attractive large heulandite crystals from this old classic locale. The largest are 3 cm across. Better in person!

JWHITE-49 - Prehnite - $ 100
Vesper Peak Snohomish Co., Washington, USA
miniature, 5.1 x 3.6 x 2.3 cm

ex. John White

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A rarity for the locality, found in the mid- 1970s by local collectors, this specimen has sharp euhedral prehnite crystals in a weirdly pseudocubic form, to 1.5 cm , from the classic garnet locale!

JWHITE-47 - Chalcoalumite - $ 400
Grandview Mine, Grand Canyon Park, Coconino Co., Arizona, USA
small cabinet, 6.0 x 5.5 x 3.9 cm

ex. John White

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Chalcoalumite from Grandview Mine, Grand Canyon Park, Coconino Co., Arizona, USA [db_pics/new09/sea47a.jpg]

Chalcoalumite from Grandview Mine, Grand Canyon Park, Coconino Co., Arizona, USA [db_pics/new09/sea47a.jpg]

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Chalcoalumite from Grandview Mine, Grand Canyon Park, Coconino Co., Arizona, USA [db_pics/new09/sea47b.jpg]

Chalcoalumite from Grandview Mine, Grand Canyon Park, Coconino Co., Arizona, USA [db_pics/new09/sea47b.jpg]

A beautiful specimen rich on one display face with intensely turquoise-colored, spherical aggrgates, of chalcoalumite crystals. This is a rare copper and aluminum species.

JWHITE-37 - Pachnolite - $ 500
Ivigtut Cryolite deposit, Ivigtut, Kitaa (West Greenland) Province, Greenland
small cabinet, 9.4 x 6.8 x 4.1 cm

ex. John White

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Pachnolite is one of those bizarre rare aluminum minerals that comes from , came from rather, this incredibly remote and difficult locality in Greenland. It was mined to extract aluminum in the 1800s and early 1900s until more modern processes using bauxite ore made this deposit not cost-economic to mine (and the waters had to be kept out at great expense as they went deeper, too). Today, the deposit is inaccessible and these minerals are extremely hard to obtain as specimens. This is a very large , solid mass of completely pachnolite, like one seldom sees! The piece is ssparkly and pretty. It is composed of pachnolite in small crystals forming large platelike growths.

JWHITE-36 - Lavendulanite with Azurite - $ 50
Talmessi, Anarak District, Esfahan Province, Iran
thumbnail, 2.6 x 2.5 x 1.1 cm

ex. John White

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A small specimen rich with sparkling light blue crystals of lavendulan and darker blue micros of azurite mixed in, from a rare locale.

JWHITE-34 - Arfvedsonite - $ 100
Conway, Carroll Co., New Hampshire, USA
thumbnail, 2.4 x 1.5 x 1.3 cm

ex. John White

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A REALLY fine , super sharp crystal of arfvedsonite on a bit of amphibole matrix, from this classic and important old East Coast locale. The crystal is 2 cm tall and razor sharp, superb for a US specimen of this species

JWHITE-27 - Wavellite - $ 200
Slate Mountain, near Placerville, El Dorado County, California, USA
miniature, 5.0 x 3.9 x 3.6 cm

ex. John White

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Wavellite from this locality has a rich, unique, sparkling green color to it that is very distinct from Arkansas material. It is more lush and vivid, I would say. These specimens are VERY RARE on the market, and I am told were collected only sparsely, some 20-30 years ago now. I have only ever seen a half dozen specimens for sale of this material.

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Rob Lavinsky, rob@irocks.com

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