Calcite

Item Description

A showy display specimen of Calcite from the famous Ojuela Mine in Mexico featuring many rather sharp, well-formed, gemmy, colorless rhombs measuring up to 1.6 cm, sitting on oxidized matrix. Some of the smaller Calcites are virtually WATER-CLEAR, and you can see right through them to the underlying matrix. A couple of the crystals actually show beautiful internal "phantoms" from iron oxide inclusions. Most of the crystals are undamaged, but there are a few rough spots, so the piece is not completely pristine. I will say that even though these crystals are colorless rhombs, it's actually not that common to see from Ojuela as they are often either included with other minerals (i.e., Aurichalcite) or the crystals are highly modified or compressed to find simply pristine textbook colorless rhombs is a bit of rarity in my experience.
From the collection of Gary and Terry Butts of Livermore, Colorado. This husband and wife collecting duo were childhood sweethearts, and have been together since they began dating as teenagers growing up in East Des Moines, Iowa in the 1950s. Both of them had an early interest in the hobby thanks to the fact that Terry's parents had a keen interest in lapidary, which sparked an interest in rocks for both of them. Gary and Terry were featured in an article in the Des Moines Register on Feb 4, 1962 (see photo in this listing) highlighting their interest and prowess in the hobby as youngsters. Gary traveled to various localities around the US as a teenager with his father (who worked in the tin industry), to personally collect specimens. He then attended the School of Mines in Golden, Colorado and graduated in 1967 with a degree in extractive metallurgical engineering. We went to work for Duval Corp at the Esperanza Mine south of Tucson, Arizona and then work for Cyprus Mines, Hazen Research, Pincock, Allen & Holt and the Colorado School of Mines Research Institute. His final job was in the mineral and environmental division of Intertek Testing Services of London, which owned the Canadian mineral testing company, Bonder Clegg. Gary's various jobs allowed him to travel the world and build his collection by buying a lot of specimens in person when they were coming out of the ground. Additionally, Terry's uncle was a miner in Creede, Colorado and later owned a rock shop which supplied Gary with specimens from the area. The specimens in this auction represent what Gary and Terry considered the "cream of the crop" of their collection.