The 4-cm long crystals of metallic erythrite, rising from a quartz shard, make this both an important and a beautiful example of the classic erythrites that were the finest known to the early European mineralogists. It is a display-quality competition-level miniature of a material normally only seen in "reference quality" for the locality collector. Still surpassed only by specimens from a very few modern locales (in Morocco), these distinct crystal sprays are rare to find on the market today and only come out of museums and very old collections. This is one of the largest I know of, that has been for sale, and comes from the Phil Scalisi collection. Ex Harvard Museum. Joe Budd photos