UTR21-51
Parisite
Snowbird Mine, Fish Creek, Alberton, Mineral Co., Montana, USA
Miniature, 3.5 x 2.5 x 1.75 cm
Ex. Bart Cannon
$9,000.00 Payment Plan Available
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This is a well-defined and sharp crystal of Parisite from a classic locality for the species, the Snowbird Mine in Montana - and certainly the largest and best we have seen for sale from a USA locality. This locality has produced excellent, but limited amounts of, distinct crystals of the species compared to localities in Colombia and Malawi. This stout, terminated, tapered, single crystal is very attractive with good luster, horizontal striations, and medium brown color. With good backlighting, the striking, deep red-brown internal color is revealed. I love how this rare-earth carbonate forms these tapered, sharp, geometric crystals! This is a really eye catching geometry, and is in excellent condition - complete all around 360 degrees. This is a very fine, display-quality specimen, and from the collection of the best-known field collector for the area, Bart Cannon. Sadly, Bart passed away recently. This was from my last exchange with him. Bart collected this in 1979. As a final note on the specimen, when I got it from Bart we had the same conversation I am about to make here, that the pricing is not really premium upon a similarly sized and shaped crystal from Colombia, if you could even find one for sale (rarely). Sadly, not enough people know about Bart. He was a quiet guy who collected prodigiously all over the Northwest and was known for superb specimens of unbelievably rare things. He was the kind of guy who built his own jury-rigged RAMAN and X RAY equipment in his basement to analyse minerals, and ran an identification lab in his spare time, among his other activities. For sheer diversity of oddballs and rare species, I have never seen a better representation of the kinds of minerals that could be found in the Northwest USA, than in his home.

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