STOUDT-18
Vivianite
13th level, San Antonio Mine, East Camp, Santa Eulalia District, Chihuahua, Mexico
Cabinet, 9.5 x 1.8 x 1.6 cm
Ex. David and Emily Stoudt; F. John Barlow
SOLD
In the 1980s and early 1990s, now famous finds of beautiful green ludlamites were found here. Some of those pockets, a few, had vivianite. Most of the crystals were cruddy, but in March 1994, this spectacular, elongated, complete crystal was produced. I am told that it is one of the best single vivianites recovered from Mexico (as Barlow writes in his book), and certainly I have seen nothing even close to it for sale. It is extremely gemmy and remains so, 20 years after being mined. The crystal has a strange, melted look that is quite unlike any vivianites I have seen but very oddly similar to the melted look of some galenas from this district. Formerly in the John Barlow Collection (illustrated in his book from 1998, on page 340), it was sold off in 1998 along with the rest of the collection and quickly nabbed by Arizona/Mexico collector Evan Jones. Evan sold the Mexico suite to concentrate on Arizona, and at that time I purchased this piece for the Stoudt collection. Joe Budd photos.