Menu
Cart 0

Benstonite on Fluorite with Celestite, Bethel Level, Minerva Oil Company, Cave-in-Rock District, Southern Illinois Small cabinet 5 x 5 x 9 cm $950. Online 5/10. SOLD.

NSMW12243

  • $ 95000


Light blue fluorite richly covered with creamy yellow benstonite. Benstonite, a late-stage, complex carbonate from the district, displays the characteristic waxy luster, and curved crystals and rounded, ball-like aggregates. There is a very rare association with celestite (visual examination only) on the matrix side. Excellent color for benstonite and a very fine rich example from mining ca. early 1960s but perhaps as early as the 1950s. Provenance: Jim DuFoe Collection; sold to Ross Lillie Tucson Show 2000. Entered into Ross C. Lillie database as RCL2455. Benstonite confirmed by Bill Metropolis of Harvard using X-Ray Diffraction 10/99.