Calcite on Marcasite

Item Description

The famous Calcites from the Shullsburg area in Wisconsin (which included at least 125 different mines according to the entry on mindat.org) are some of the most distinctive and beautiful examples of the species from any Midwest US locality. This piece is a big impressive display specimen loaded with beautiful colorless/white Calcite modified rhombic crystals, showing the classic vitreous luster on the surface and silky interiors sitting on a plate of soft golden colored metallic Marcasite. Like many Calcites from this area, this piece shows a wonderful scepter habit, with the rhombic crystals sitting atop a more scalenohedral habit underneath. The piece is in amazingly good condition for its size, as there only a few rough spots (mainly along the periphery where it detached from the pocket wall) and it's so three-dimensional and showy compared to many others we've seen. A truly impressive piece of this classic distinctive material. Valued $4,500. Formerly in the collections of Bud Poulin and Larry Cross.
Ex George Loud Collection No. 14.1.1.1 WI.4; 9959 George (born August 16, 1942) is a well-known mineral collector from Washington, DC and South Carolina respectively, and was a patent lawyer by trade for over 50 years. He assembled one of the great mineral collections in the U.S., comprising worldwide specimens, and in later years he sold the worldwide specimens to focus on minerals of the United States, specifically locality suites with an emphasis on amazing representation of species while still maintaining fine quality. The specimens remarkably range from micros to all the way up to large cabinets in size. We recently acquired most of his impressive 9000+ piece collection, and the VAST majority of these pieces will be offered here in the auctions, as we feel that everyone deserves and equal opportunity at acquiring these important, well-documented and fine quality specimens for their collections.
See: https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/george-loud for more information