Large Calcite w/ Marcasite (rare - old Illinois) Robertson Coll.

Item Description

A SUPERB and RARE large calcite from this obscure old Galena District lead and zinc mine. Striking, intergrown glassy, translucent rhombs have satin luster faces and are strikingly, preferentially peppered with tiny marcasite crystals along the modified rhomb edges. The impressive large rhombs reach 4.5 cm on the diagonal and the calcites rest on a sphalerite matrix. Lead was mined here by Native Americans, the French in the late 17th century and by Americans starting in the early 1800s. Glory days were in the middle 1800s, with a slow decline following. The last mines closed in the 1950s. Ex Kay Robertson Collection # 673 and acquired from Scott Williams in the 1950s. Kay is a prominent California collector, who specialized in European classics (see the article in the March-April, 2007 Mineralogical Record). This outstanding and rare large specimen from the Bautsch Mine is easily over 100 years old.