Pyrite with Calcite

Item Description

A very sculptural and highly aesthetic Calcite with Pyrite piece from Cavnic, Romania. Numerous, white, almost pagoda-style Calcite arrangements dominate this attractive piece that is accentuated by one sidecar cluster of bright Pyrite cubes. The Calcites look like extended scalenohedrons ranging in size from 3 to 4 cm tall and composed of scores of stacked, thin Calcite discs averaging 3 to 5 mm across. There must be nearly two dozen of the pagoda-style Calcite "scalenohedrons" that either diverge near their bases or are conjoined sideways in a staggered fashion. The Pyrite cluster consists of two intergrown cubes that measure 1.5 and 1.3 cm across, respectively and have a great brassy yellow metallic luster. A few other smaller Pyrite crystals are intergrown at one end of this group. It glows faint pink in short wave UV. Kurt Hefendehl was one of the early collectors of Cavnic material and followed the locale for decades.