- MIX18-87
- Libethenite
- Phoenix United Mine, Linkinhorne, Liskeard, Cornwall, England, UK
- Miniature, 3.9 x 3.5x 2.5 cm
- Ex. Count Franz Graf Matuschka
- $3,000.00 Payment Plan Available
| An unusually sharp, textbook-shaped, large and well-developed libethenite crystal on a vuggy quartz matrix from this old 1800s locality. This large, terminated orthorhombic crystal of libethenite is dark green and lustrous and the exposed portion of the crystal measures 1.1 x 0.8 x 0.7cm. Minor partial crystals of libethenite are found locally on the specimen along with smatterings of pseudomalachite. Ex. Dr. Franz Graf Matuschka collection with his label. While we have seen small crusts of this, and the occasional larger specimen with crystals, this is a huge crystal for the locality of high significance for the species here, and it presents with modern aesthetics as an isolated crystal on matrix instead of the usual small jumble. For what is , I was astonished to see this specimen! For amazing history on this collector, we referenced the Mineralogical Record label archives (https://mineralogicalrecord.com/labels.asp?colid=1191): "Count Franz Matuschka von Toppolczan (Breslau, Germany), a Prussian geologist, was born in 1859 and received his PhD Degree in Geology from the University of G_ttingen. His dissertation was entitled "Die Dachschiefer von Berleburg" (1886). Matuschka was a founding member of the Akademische Verbindung Palatia G_ttingen Catholic Student's Association in 1883. He married Alice Schalscha von Ehrenfeld. His published works include a 1903 study of the "Indo-australische Archipel, die Vulkane Javas in besonderen." As of 1905 he was living in Berlin. His extensive personal mineral collection numbered over 4, 000 specimens, and was probably dispersed upon his death in 1943." |
