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Mineral Specimens with Calcite
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A DRAMATIC Mexican specimen, featuring a frosted euhedral calcite crystal standing starkly alone on its edge, on a bed of very light-colored amethystine quartz. The calcite is complete and undamaged all around! 11.2 x 8 x 6 cm
Mark my words: with the Elmwood now closed for good, there are going to be a lot of people kicking themselves 2 or 3 years from now for not grabbing great specimens when they were around. Already, they are noticeably scarce at the shows. Museum-size specimens such as this of superb quality are money in the bank, as far as I’m concerned. I mean, imagine what a calcite specimen of this magnitude from ANYWHERE is worth! This specimen features a gemmy twin 18 cm in length and 10 cm wide, intergrown with a second crystal. It is beautifully centered on a receding, dome-shaped matrix of stark white barite. Now if you know anything about these calcites, you know that as they get larger, almost all of them have tip damage. However, this specimen is DAMAGE-FREE, making it extra rare. For its sheer visual power, size and rapidly-increasing rarity. 23 x 18 x 9 cm
Wow, a really dramatic specimen from the Elmwood! As I have said before, with this mine now closed, the specimens are getting NOTICEABLY scarce at the shows. Now, as Elmwood pieces get larger, the vast majority have tip damage, and this one does have a very small, but very clean, cleave at the upper termination (it is actually so small, clean and angular that it looks like a natural face). The lower termination is not complete – it was sheered off in removal from the pocket, but honestly, you don’t see it anyway, so it doesn’t detract from the beauty of the specimen – and if both tips were complete and perfect, you would be looking at three times the cost. Also, this flat lower termination actually acts as a perfect point of contact for the specimen to sit on, so that you literally don’t need a stand! The important end of the crystal, the one sticking up, is just superb in gemminess and fine amber color. 13.5 x 10 x 7.5 cm
9.0 x 6.5 x 5.5 cm. Three velvety-soft, snow-white okenite puffballs are adjacent to two gem, very light amber calcite crystals attractively placed on the front of a pristine and aesthetic cluster of intergrown, snow-white gyrolite balls. The gyrolite is superb - seldom do they get so lustrous or so stark and snowy white. Ed Ruggiero purchased this piece from the Zweibels of Mineral Kingdom in 1980, while the famous Malad Quarries near Bombay were producing such fine specimens. The quarries are now closed, due to population growth. Ex. Ed. Ruggiero Collection.
10.8 x 8.4 x 4.8 cm. Glassy, colorless calcite rhombs to 1.0 cm are festooned on the 3-dimensional, contrasting gossan matrix of this fine cabinet specimen from the Tsumeb Mine. Classic calcite material from this renowned locale. Ex. Rob Smith Collection.
4.9 x 4.9 x 3.1 cm. Glassy, transparent, colorless, calcite rhombs to 1.6 cm are filled with oxide inclusions on this fine, 3-dimensional specimen from the Tsumeb Mine. The two largest rhombs are stacked atop each other at the crest of the piece. Ex. Rob Smith Collection.
4.4 x 2.9 x 1.1 cm. An old-time, fine, Kongsberg silver and calcite specimen. Nicely burnished silver wires hold together and are impaled in several shards of veined massive calcite. The curved and curled silver wires are a beautiful contrast to the stark milky calcite. Classic and very old Kongsberg material. Ex. Mullane Collection.
14.2 x 9.8 x 4.8 cm. A stunning cabinet calcite specimen from the Elmwood Mine. This very glassy and gemmy, amber to golden-amber piece is fabulously doubly terminated and the large crystal at the top is twinned. One end is a huge, gemmy, golden-amber termination, while the other end is a striking cluster of gemmy "shark’s teeth". Calcites like this are what Elmwood is renowned for. This piece is very nearly pristine.
13.8 x 13.6 x 6.6 cm. From a large private collection of Spanish minerals, a cabinet-sized version of something we normally only see as smaller specimens. A thin veneer of limestone matrix is the host for a plate of glassy and gemmy, yellow-amber, fluorite crystals to 8 mm across. A later generation of lustrous and translucent, ivory colored calcite crystals, to 5 cm in length and of complex combinations of rhombohedral and prismatic habits, has almost completely covered the earlier fluorite. Very nice color and sculptural contrast make this one of the better large examples from this locality, and quite distinct in its combination from calcite of other locales.
19.3 x 11.7 x 7.8 cm. Three generations of crystallization have occurred on this limestone matrix. The first to form was a plate of lustrous and translucent, amber-colored crystals of fluorite, to .5 cm across. Next to form were clusters of intergrown, saddle-shaped, ivory colored calcite. The third generation resulted in large, lustrous and translucent, ivory colored rhombohedrons of calcite, to 6.5 cm across - including one big crystal perched right at the apex of the specimen; and, remarkably not only is it complete 360 degrees around, but it is pristine. Aside from any locality value, this is therefore an interesting specimen with fascinating paragenesis. Very nice color and sculptural contrast make this one of the better large examples from this famous locality, and quite distinct in its combination from calcite of other locales. In fact, it is very similar to material from old quarries in Shullsberg, Wisconsin - but those of course do not grow on fluorite. This is from a private collection in Spain, accumulated over decades.
10.0 x 7.8 x 4.6 cm. Much great material has come from this mine recently, including a new cache of intense, saturated pink cobalt-rich calcite specimens. This superb piece is a double-ended stalactitic growth, perched on a stalk of calcite below. Although contacted in back, it is complete and absolutely pristine on the front, sides, and top.
12 x 9 x 5 cm. Ed David had a huge suite of several dozen very fine Herkimer quartz specimens in his collection, assembled over 30 years of collecting. This was, to me, his prize Herkimer quartz specimen. It is a phenomenally gemmy crystal group on matrix, with calcite, acquired in 1998 from miner Nancy Koskie. The calcite association is highly unusual. Not only is there an association, but the quartzes are of highest quality in terms of clarity, brightness, and form. The cluster is attractively perched on the matrix.
9.2 x 8.1 x 6.3 cm. This new find here has superb color beyond anything this mine or any other has ever produced in the past for cobaltoan calcite. This is from a novel new pocket from a mine that has slowly been trickling out specimens for a few years now. Mass is 436 grams.
5.3 x 3.3 x 2.8 cm. This specimen is a gorgeous large miniature with a sharp, doubly-terminated, 1.9-cm dioptase crystal perched on contrasting matrix of sparkly calcite. It is very 3-dimensional and for the size, extremely well balanced and aesthetic. From the collection of well known South African dealer, Rob Smith.
8.8 x 8.7 x 5.3 cm. This stunning specimen looks bright and new, but is definitely from the classic mid- to late-1800's finds of these sharp calcite twins. Heart twins from Egremeont are an "essential classic" in that they are beautiful and important at the same time. Aside from one (barely passing) similar pocket from China about 5 years ago, there still is nothing else like these around from other locales. Most of these twins were collected in the 1860s until 1880s, and famous British dealer John Graves handled the majority. Normally, you would want a floater twin to have the "classic" style. However, this is much more rare, and unexpected - a twin on matrix. It measures 9 x 8.5 x 5 cm thick, and is really clean with no damage and total translucency not marred by internal spots of color or matrix inclusions as so many are. In person it is bright and shiny, no hint of old dinginess. A twin this fat is unusual, this symmetric and undamaged more so, and on matrix...really there are just a few known examples. To cap off the piece, there are small prismatic calcite crystals at the bottom, total gems no less, that serve as a nice accent between the twin and its matrix host. I collected calcites for 20 years, and I never had the chance to get such an aesthetic, fine, matrix heart twin as this one during that time. I know of a few bigger, a few smaller, with matrix association - but still, a vanishingly small number.
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Rob Lavinsky, rob@irocks.com
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