Name: Pseudo-scalenohedral Hematite with Andradite
Brand: The Arkenstone
Price: 9000 USD
Availability: InStock

Pseudo-scalenohedral Hematite with Andradite

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This is a fine small cabinet piece composed of a large, elongate, brilliant, "scalenohedral-looking" Hematite crystal accented by some Andradite Garnet and a few Calcite crystals. Color and texture, and contrast galore in this piece really draw the eye in! The prominent Hematite is an amazing 3.8 cm in length and has just a brilliant, reflective metallic luster as does its smaller sidecar companions. The mirror-bright faces on the big crystal are super sharp and display some very subtle horizontal striations and growth features in places its length. There are several other small, 0.4 to 2.7 cm Hematite crystals strategically located on the sides and back of the large crystal and the back of the piece has a coating of pinkish colored Andradite microcrystals for added color and texture. Three, well-formed, 1 cm or less, transparent to translucent Calcite rhombs decorate the middle and bottom of the stately Hematite crystal. This is just a superb small cabinet piece from a limited find of these exquisite crystals as few decades ago. Many of us refer to this pocket as the "scalenohedral or pseudo-scalenohedral pocket" for the unusual elongated habit - they really do look like elongated calcites frozen in carbonite to make them metallic and shiny. They look fake, on first glance, because the first adjective that comes to mind to really describe the shape is "machined". You rarely see these for sale and THIS is one of the best in size class. It came to us from the Charlie Key collection (sold to us over a decade ago by the late great Indiana-Jones-style explorer). This specimen was in a suite of a half dozen hematite miniatures of different sizes and crystal habits, that he had accumulated. He had a large portion of this pocket as well, which I think he said came out in the mid-1990s (could have been 1980s, though...this was a long time ago that he told me). In any case, it is a stunning, superb miniature and for a hematite, ranks highly. But for ANY metallic species, it ranks highly.