Calcite var: Manganese-bearing with Manganite

Item Description

It's rare to find showy thumbnails of this classic material, and to be honest, I can't remember having one in this size range outside of this specimen. This piece is a showy and good quality specimen featuring a group of light pink (manganese-bearing) Calcite "balls" sitting atop bladed metallic black Manganite crystals on matrix. The entire Calcite group measures 1.3 cm at its longest dimension. The front-facing side of the specimen is in great shape, but the topmost "ball" is contacted on the back where it was separated from the pocket wall. A really cool piece of this well-known yet now hard to find material.
This specimen comes from the lifelong worldwide thumbnail collection of Dr. Alexander ("Alex") Schauss (#916). I would advise reading the interview at https://www.irocks.com/collector-interview-alex-schauss to get a better understanding of who he is as a mineral collector and a person.