This is an attractive specimen of the rare hydrous calcium silicate Suolunite from THE find for the species at the Black Lake Mine. This pretty display piece is composed of translucent, lavender, botryoidal aggregates that have subtle polygonal outlines within the piece. The luster is silky, and the color is very easy on the eyes. Charlie Key was able to secure the majority of this famous single pocket that was apparently a geologic aberration (he purchased it as purple prehnite, from the miners, he once told me over a lobster dinner at his home in Maine when I helped him pack up the collection he sold me a decade ago). Interestingly, everybody knew that Charlie collected prehnite for himself, and so that may be why he was offered the pocket in the first place - at a premium for "purple prehnite". Charlie in turn sold the whole lot to the Royal Ontario Museum, only keeping a few for himself (of which this is one). Any specimens such as this on the market in the last decade were actually then deaccessioned from the museum in an exchange/trade through dealers Rod and Helen Tyson, back in the late 1990s. Charlie kept the best few in this size, as he loved the location so much. This piece, interestingly, has cutting rough in it - we cut some stones and even sold one back to the Museum back in the day. It is a displayable, sublime miniature for the species!