Diopside (ex Kay Robertson Collection)

Item Description

This piece is labeled as coming from "Vasko, Banat, Hungary". The old historic name for Ocna de Fier (now in Romania) is Vasko, in the region of Banat which is an area now split between Romania, Serbia and Hungary. With that said, this piece is the first specimen of Diopside that I've seen labeled from this area. The label also mentions Grossular, Calcite and Magnetite, but I honestly can't find the Calcite or Magnetite. I'm assuming that the white crystals are Grossular, but I can't be 100% certain. The only thing we can say for sure is that the dark greenish-brown prisms are the Diopside. The crystals measure up to 1.1 cm long and have well-formed, sharp, lustrous faces. An odd piece to be sure, but a interesting specimen to add to a suite of classic European minerals. Ex Kay Robertson Collection (#4163) with a label from Dr. F. Krantz of Bonn, Germany.. Kay was a prominent California collector, who specialized in European classics. She nearly lived 100 years from April 1920 - March 2020. See the article in the March-April, 2007 Mineralogical Record ( https://www.mineralogicalrecord.com/pdfs/Kay%20Robertson%20Collection.pdf ), and the 50+ page article in the German Magazine "Mineralien Welt" November-December 2017.