Calcite (phantom) (self-collected by Willard Wulff)

Item Description

A cabinet sized display specimen from the famous locality at Joplin. There are not a lot of species found in this area, but the Calcites stand out as some of the finest examples from anywhere in the United States. This specimen comes from the collection of Willard W. Wulff (1904-1998) of Colorado Springs, Colorado, a prominent figure and collector of Colorado minerals. Wulff was one of the founding members of the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society in 1936. You can read Willard's bio on the Mineralogical Record website here ( http://www.minrec.org/labels.asp?colid=1528 ). The piece comes with a typed label from Wulff on one of his famous 3x5 index cards that states the piece was self-collected. A big, sharp, silvery, translucent scalenohedron of this classic material showing a disticnt and eye-catching internal "phantom". The piece has separation marks on the bottom where I believe it was attached to other Calcite crystals at one point in time. Good quality for the material, with pleasing luster. Despite the fact that there was a lot of these pieces on the market years ago, much fewer are out there now.