Calcite (pseudo-pyritohedral)

Item Description

A big showy Calcite specimen from a find in Chenzhou, Hunan, China (said to be the Shizhuyuan Mine) circa 2005. This attractive and three-dimensional cabinet sized piece is filled with excellent, gemmy, sharp, lustrous, pseudo-pyritohedral, pale straw colored Calcite crystals sitting on a layer of drusy Quartz on matrix. This particular crystal habit is rarely seen from any Chinese locality and reminds one of the old specimens from The La Florida area in Spain which show equant combination of the {012} rhombohedron and {211} scalenohedron faces. The piece is in very good condition, with only a few tiny nicks, but perhaps the most impressive part is that it's nearly a complete "floater", as it's almost crystallized all around. The largest Calcite measures 2.8 cm across, which is very good sized for this find. This one would make a great addition to a worldwide Calcite suite, or a Chinese mineral collection. Very few of these pieces are available on the market now, so if you missed out when they were available, be sure to pick this one up.