Baryte

A group of translucent pale sky blue Baryte crystals form very flat tabular blades with snow white terminations.  This is an unusual and scarce specimen, unlike anything typically seen from this area of west Cumbria.  The original label gives the locality as “Egremont, Cumberland, England” with no further mine details.  However on the two more recent labels (see below) both Ralph Sutcliffe and Lindsay Greenbank have labelled it as Pallaflat mine, based upon their expert local knowledge.  Lindsay has done the correct thing by placing the suspected mine name in square brackets, i.e. [Pallaflat Mine].  All the blades have a bright glassy lustre with a resinous appearance and pearlescent lustre.  Patches on some of the crystals display a play of iridescent colours and the more this is studied, the more beautiful it appears.  This cabinet specimen comes with an old W.W. Jefferis label; a Ralph A. Sutcliffe (Nelson, Lancashire) stock label and a Lindsay Greenbank Collection (No. LG.95) card label.  A gorgeous west Cumbrian Baryte with good provenance.