Calcite

Unknown Owner

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From the well-known collection of Dr. Ed David, President Nixon's former science advisor and a longtime mineral collector, this is a huge, bowling-ball-sized single twinned crystal from this classic East Coast locale. I have not seen a larger one, in good condition. The piece glows with intense burnt-orange color when backlit even a little bit, very translucent. It is complete-all-around, and just shocking in size compared to the usual 2-3 inch crystals from this quarry. A superb, rare, American classic. I recently found out from Pennsylvania expert Bryon Brookmyer that it was collected on January 26-27 of 1974 by Ira Smith, an East Coast collector specializing in calcite. Apparently this was the only pocket of such large crystals, in this style, ever found there. Brookmyer and dealer Neal Pfaff acquired the Ira Smith collection in 1986. Bryon kept this piece in his Pennsylvania collection awhile, and then sold it through Neal to Gerald Kloc, a well-known collector specializing in Calcite twins. From there, it eventually ended up in the Ed David collection when the Kloc collection was broken up in 2003. I acquired Ed's collection in 2005. The mass is over 2 kilograms for this single crystal.