Titanite var Sphene - Classic New York
stock #17.1-804
Diana Township, Lewis County
New York,
United States
7.9 x 4.4 x 2.8 CM (cabinet)
price: $220
Spring update
Vintage specimen with old EB Underhill label. Underhill donated his collection posthumously to Amherst College in 1888, so this piece and his handwritten label is older than that. Not many of these labels survive today and the Sphene specimen is also a very rare example from a classic locale. I have never seen another quite like this, the luster is very bright on the slender dark gem clear crystals in the protected vug. Microscope reveals tiny Clinochlore and what may be colorless Fluorites, not known from this locale. A nice slice of mineral history.