Realgar on Calcite

Item Description

A real classic from the famous Shimen Mine. The Realgars from this locality are considered the finest for the species. This piece features sharp, well-formed, lustrous, translucent, silvery colored scalenohedra of Calcite associated with glowing electric red Realgar crystals measuring up to 2.7 cm. Not completely perfect as there are some contacts, but decent shape overall. The Calcites show multiple internal "phantoms" when backlit! From the worldwide collection of David Burgess (1951-2016) with a label from Russ Behnke. David was a prolific species collector from Newington, Connecticut, and the namesake for the extremely rare cobalt arsenate species Burgessite, which he discovered.