Exceptional Brookite on Calcite
Collection
Robert Lavinsky
Description
A gorgeous matrix piece with a 2.5 cm tall Brookite standing straight up, yet protected by the matrix. Richard Kosnar had a well known collection specializing in, among other suites, alpine cleft minerals of the Swiss/French Alps, Pakistan, and the Dodo deposit in Russia. He had a standing order in the 1980s-1990s to buy the best he could get of the Russian alpine-type material from the dealership of Van Scriver, who were bringing so much of it to market through their deep Russian contacts. This piece was recovered by a skilled Russian collector in July 1996, after going back into an old pocket where miners had previously recovered large, gemmy Quartz crystals for which this locale is famous (and for which the miners sought to get their more obvious "payday"). It has been said that this Brookite specimen is one of only two of this aesthetics and magnitude, the other being a piece in the Ed David collection of similar magnitude but slightly lesser aesthetics (and it came from the same pocket, via the same dealers Star and Brad van Scriver). Held unseen for nearly 20 years, Rob Lavinsky obtained this piece from the family of Richard Kosnar after he passed away. Joe Budd photo. (lso pictured in the Mineralogical Record Vol. 30, No. 6 (Nov-Dec 1999) on page 433, Figure 15.)
Locality
Dodo Mine #32 level, Saranpaul, Prepolar Ural, Western-Siberian Region, Russia
Close
