Calcite stalactites (unusual form - old - classic locale)

Item Description

An amazingly fanciful and rare style calcite from an unknown mine or quarry in historic Cornwall. This highly sculptural cave calcite is composed of intergrown stalactites of stacked, lustrous, glassy, colorless rhombs. Some of the stalactites are dramatically attached to a striking, single 4.2 cm modified nailhead scalenohedron. The fantastic isolated stalactite looks like a backbone! Complele all-around and essentially pristine, the attachment is at the end opposite the large crystal. Possibly from Wheal Wrey, Liskeard District. Old material, as the last mine closed in the area in 1874. From an East Coast Collection.