Calcite

Unknown Owner

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Webb City calcites are almost a myth in collecting - so few exist to be seen, and so few good ones exist to be owned. This is a fish-tail twinned crystal of huge size, about the size of a football. These are of a rare, unique style found at the turn of the 1900s, in oldest workings of what was to become the famed TriState district in later years. This area today is a disaster site with slumping, empty old cities atop the old mines.This particular specimen would be a beautiful killer from ANY location, but I think the historic interest as a bonus. It is a nearly pristine, huge twinned calcite with a glowing lavender-pink color when even moderately backlit...presenting just an amazing visual impact wihtout knowing anything about the mineral or locality itself. The only other one like it that I have seen was in the Smithsonian's long-held exhibit on TriState material (photo shown here). I am told by oldtimers that most of this material back in the day when found was split along the cleavage planes to make beautiful calcite cleavage chunks for fun and play. Most miners split them in pieces for gifts, paperweights and the like. I believe this to be one of the most distinct, impressive calcites in importance you can own from a US locality. I had no idea something like this existed on the market to be had, even...until I saw it in the Robert Whitmore collection. He obtained it in an old collection he thinks, sometime in the 1960s. To this day, these remain unique in the world and a major US classic. It is the best piece in the Whitmore collection, some would say, even though it was not from his East Coast focus area. Joe Budd photo.