Calcite on Sphalerite, with Dolomite - image 1

Calcite on Sphalerite, with Dolomite - image 2

Calcite on Sphalerite, with Dolomite

Unknown Owner

Help improve this recordNo owner is registered for this specimen yet. If it's yours or you know more about it, you can add the owner, provenance, publications and other details.

Here is an unusual Elmwood combination piece in that the classic doubly terminated, twinned, golden calcite jewel sits perched UP and atop a cluster of sphalerite, a somewhat unusual association style. The sharp calcite crystal is 8.5 cm, or about 3.5 inches across, and hangs dramatically to show both sharp and pointy terminations in the air! It is standing up and out from the matrix, again somewhat unusually, and is associated with small crystals of dolomite atop massive dolomite (dolostone) matrix. We believe this is an older specimens and overall it is quite a rare style. From an old collection, it has never been to the lab for cleaning and restoration or modification of tiny dings, so it does have tiny dings typical of the old miner-mined material back in the day... but it is calcite and all of that is easily remediated if anybody cares to do so, with acid. It is good enough, we did not bother sending to the lab, and I like the authenticity in any case of showing we have such a natural luster and surface here. The piece sits and displays phenomenally, notable because of the contrast of gold-on-black.