Pyromorphite

Dark clove Pyromorphite crystals grading to light brown towards the terminations are intergrown on the display face while further small (up to 8 mm) Pyromorphite crystals are scattered across the underside of the white Quartz matrix. From the Bad Ems mining district in Germany’s Lahn Valley, a fine and large crystal, 2.9 cm long, dominates this choice miniature. All the Pyromorphite crystals are hexagonal in cross-section, have flat, etched pinacoid terminations with a matt to glassy lustre and highly lustrous prism sides. Some crystals display cyclic colour banding close to their terminations, alternating between clove-brown and creamy-pale brown in narrow bands. An impressive group of well crystallised Pyromorphite from Bad Ems and of a colour characteristically associated with the Bad Ems mining district.