Quartz (doubly-terminated) with Calcite(?) (ex Kay Robertson Collection)

Item Description

This piece came to us labeled as Quartz with Calcite from Governador Valadares, Brazil, but I can't find a listing for any Quartz with Calcite from this area. My feeling is that it might possibly be from the Morro Velho Mine in Nova Lima. A 6.6 cm, doubly-terminated, very sharp, lustrous, GEMMY, colorless, prismatic, hexagonal crystal of Quartz is surrounded by compressed rhombohedra of Calcite(?) measuring up to 3.7 cm across on all sides. The piece is nearly a complete "floater" as it's almost crystallized all the way around, and the back of the piece even shows a few small additional Quartz crystals poking out. If anybody out there has insight as to the true locality of this piece, please let us know. Ex Kay Robertson Collection (#6167). Kay is a prominent California collector, who specialized in European classics (see the article in the March-April, 2007 Mineralogical Record and the 50+ page article in the German Magazine "Mineralien Welt" November-December 2017).