Calcite (Illustrated) - Double Butterfly Twinned - image 1

Calcite (Illustrated) - Double Butterfly Twinned - image 2

Calcite (Illustrated) - Double Butterfly Twinned - image 3

Calcite (Illustrated) - Double Butterfly Twinned - image 4

Calcite (Illustrated) - Double Butterfly Twinned - image 5

Calcite (Illustrated) - Double Butterfly Twinned - image 6

Calcite (Illustrated) - Double Butterfly Twinned

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Ross Lillie considered this one of the top ten Calcites in his collection (per label, attached), and the reasons are clear. This is a stunning specimen: sharp and dramatic, with butterfly twinnned crystals flaring off either side of a sharp and centered main crystal. We have also never seen such a twin, so well displayed, from this district. The contrast in form is striking and the piece is also in remarkably good condition. Twinned Calcites like this are rare from the district, and for this to have survived in such good condition since being mined in 1991 is fortuitous. Ross Lillie bought it in 1991, right after it was mined. The longest crystal is 5.8 cm. The great aesthetics and form explain why this was illustrated in the Mineralogical Record's Illinois-Kentucky Fluorite issue, V. 28, P. 31, Fig. 49. This was one of the specimens on hold for a hoped-for deal with the Chicago Field Museum, before that sale fell through and the collection sold elsewhere. RCL 1221