Calcite, Dolomite, Siderite and Muscovite

Item Description

RARE and sculptural large stacked combination from the famous North American Emerald Mine (formerly the Rist Mine). The piece is dramatically crowned by a 8.8 x 7.5 cm stacked cluster of large, lustrous, translucent, nailhead Calcite rhombohedrons accented with included yellow clays and very interesting oriented clay inclusions. An impressive large, sharp, layered, highly lustrous, translucent, yellow-brown Siderite rhombohedron is embedded on the back of the calcites. The prism face is 4.5 cm on the diagonal and the rhomb is 3.8 cm tall. The "stalk" of the specimen is composed numerous tightly intergrown very glassy and lustrous Dolomite rhombohedrons, to 2.8 cm on edge and nicely complemented by scattered clusters of pearlescent, pseudo-hexagonal Muscovite plates, to 3.4 cm across. The mine is the most important North American Emerald locality (MINDAT). Ex Dr. Ed David Collection. Ed was Science Advisor to President Nixon and was a world-class mineral collector. We bought his second collection when he was in his 80s, in 2005. He passed away in 2017. An exceptional and rare large combination from the mine. Value? Hard to say, as specimens of this size and combination quality are so rarely on the market. At the time, it was valued at several thousand dollars even when it came out.