Name: Calcite with Pyrite
Brand: The Arkenstone
Price: 1250 USD
Availability: InStock

Updated 2d ago

Calcite with Pyrite

From the great Dalnegorsk Mining District, this is a highly-unusual combination piece that features Calcite crystals coated by sparkly reddish pyrite crystals. The matrix is Calcite, and it blossoms into a field of well-developed, sharply trigonal-terminated Calcite crystals that range up to about 1.5 cm on edge. These crystals are lustrous with broadly-textured faces, gemmy-to-translucent with internal phantoms, and they have a clear to watery-grey tint. A habit like this for Calcite is uncommon, but even more rare, by far, are the indented corners on some of the crystals that look to have small pyrites at the bottom of these triangular 'pits'. Almost like a 'hoppered' effect, I'm not sure I have quite seen this fascinating modification before. The Calcite fluoresces orange-red, and the intense, reddish-to-golden patina of the micro pyrite crystals adds drama to the thought-provoking aesthetics of this small cabinet specimen. An old piece, I would have said it looked like it was from Chenzhou in China, if not for Kurt's notation of its Russian origin. He had early access to many of the Russian specimens coming to Europe in the early 1990s when the flood started.

$1,250.00