Calcite var. Cobaltian with Kolwezite

Item Description

This is a favorite of mine since I first saw it in 1998 in Jack's home, and lusted after it for my own collection (I was a calcite collector only, at the time). Cobaltian calcite at its best has the most stunning color in the entire mineral world, to my taste (and Jack Halpern shares it, as he pursued these aggressively and they were over-represented in his collection!) This specimen was among Jack's top several of 9 of these gorgeous cobaltian calcites he had at the peak size of the collection, and I begged him for just one for myself back in the early 2000s as I was strongly collecting calcites. His suite of these was beautiful, and as a color aficionado, they were among his favorite toys - for obvious reasons when you look at these photos. This piece features a proud, upright 5.5 cm-tall crystal at the edge of a mountainous quartz matrix, and with a bit of dark green kolwezite as an accent to the side. Jack bought this directly from Ken Roberts in the early 1990s, as Ken had a number of them and was at the time located in the San Francisco Bay Area near Jack. This was traded out to me at that time and has been in my own calcite collection ever since. I collected calcite since the mid-1980s, and I had always dreamed of owning a good one of these! I have since mostly deaccessioned my calcites as I graded my old collection into Chinese-specific minerals the last 20 years - but I KEPT this piece all this time. I always felt that the combination of color, crystal size and placement, and the interesting matrix that displays the crystal made this a very impactful piece, and I have had the pleasure to keep it in what remains of my childhood and early calcite collection, all these years. For those new to seeing these, all I can say is that in person, the color is surreal and you would assume it to be the fake product of a chemistry experiment - there is no color in minerals like these at their best! Modern material from Morocco is also beautiful, but different in saturation and in crystal shape. Found in the 1980s, and yet these are STILL the standard, and I am not aware of many out in the public at this late date after approximately 30 years since they were found. This is a superb example of a high level, in excellent condition, and with the provenance to Ken and Jack - both well known for their love of this material at the time they came out to market. Jack's special labeling is affixed to the back. Custom base included.