A stunning, glassy, sparkly example of this old English classic! This piece is a knoll of bright crystals, almost completely pristine on the display face, of calcite stained red by minute inclusions of hematite in oriented faces. I have seen many of these, but few seem to come up of this size with the quality here - in terms of luster and condition. I collected calcites as a child, and always dreamed of owning a good one of this style (for color if nothing else), but they came up for sale so seldom and were always expensive. I have thus paid a lot of attention to pieces of this style when they DO come up, and this one for sheer beauty is one of my favorites of the examples I have handled in recent years - if not even the most expensive. It is just "prettier" than most - more sparkly, more bright. From the recently unveiled collection of Howard Belsky, a dealer who tragically passed away at an early age several decades ago. Joe Budd photos