Calcite (old classic) with Marcasite "phantoms" (ex Kay Robertson Collection)

Item Description

A beautiful old-time specimen of the eye-catching, desirable and very hard to find Calcites from the New Glencrieff Mine in southern Scotland. This piece features a predominant pair of sharp, well-formed, translucent, slightly pinkish (possibly Mn-bearing?) scalenohedra of Calcite measuring up to 5.3 cm long free of matrix. The larger of the two crystals is contacted on the termination, but it's still an attractive display piece. Like some of the other Calcites we've seen from this mine, the piece features small metallic inclusions of Marcasite forming thin internal "phantoms" that run the length of the Calcites. Great old classic, and sought after on the market. The piece obviously dates back many many decades, as it marked by Kay Robertson's early collection number entry (#344). 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).