Detailed information
Species
Cassiterite
Dimensions
52 x 34 x 30
mm
Locality
St. Agnes Cornwall England
Condition
No recorded repairs
This lovely miniature Cornish Cassiterite specimen screams out 'St. Agnes'. A small fragment of killas host rock is overgrown by crystallized Cassiterite and Quartz. The Cassiterite crystals are well-formed, have a bright resinous lustre and are very dark brown in colour, but their most prominent feature is their shape - square-section prisms terminated by pyramids, or flat-topped pyramids. This crystal form is very distinctive of the St. Agnes area in Cornwall. The crystals reach 12 mm in length, but the freestanding fully terminated crystals only reach 7 mm long. Associated with the Cassiterite are a couple of small (up to 12 mm) terminated milky Quartz crystals. Attached to the back of the specimen are two separate lines of printed text 'Oxide of tin' 'St. Agnes,'. This type of label was common during the 19th century, often cut from auction catalogues. A really sweet, classic Cornish Cassiterite.