Analcime (partially hollow crystals)

Item Description

An unusual specimen of Analcime from the great Poudrette Quarry at Mont Saint-Hilaire. The piece hosts a pair of porcelain-esque trapezohedral white crystals measuring up to 3.3 cm across sitting on little rhombic tan-brown Siderite crystals. If you look closely at the Analcime crystals, you can see there are small openings on the surface, which indicate that the crystals are at least in part, slightly hollow. I'm not sure if this is a kind of pseudomorphism, or if the crystals were etched, and a secondary deposition of Analcime came over the top, but it's certainly strange. The luster on the Analcimes is highly reflective, and they are elegantly sitting top the matrix to create a very showy display piece. An intriguing and beautiful example of these classic Analcimes from one of the great mineral localities in history. From the collection of Vasco Trancoso, a medical doctor and prominent mineral collector from near Lisbon, Portugal (https://www.mindat.org/user-11954.html). He assembled his mineral collection over the course of 60 years, and built a fine worldwide display collection that we recently purchased. This piece is pictured on mindat.org at https://www.mindat.org/photo-189833.html