Perovskite (classic material)

Item Description

Perovskite is a calcium titanium oxide, named after Count Lev Perovski, a Russian nobleman and mineral collector. He served as the Minister of Internal Affairs under Nicholas I of Russia and developed an initiative to begin mining many deposits in Russia. This piece comes from Italy, where there are dozens of localities for Perovskite, but this particular specimen is from the lesser known Rocca Castellaccio locality. This specimen features purplish-brown colored pseudo-cubic (orthorhombic) crystals of Perovskite measuring up to 1.3 cm on edge sitting on white Calcite with minor dark green colored Diopside(?). The Perovskite crystals are in decent shape, though most of them are not 100% complete. A lot of Perovskite crystals are a dark grey or black hue, so to have crystals with a different color is certainly desirable.