Pyrite (classic locale )

Item Description

Mirror-bright, brassy, sharp pyritohedrons, to 2.0 cm, cover this rich and sculptural mounded 360-degree mounded small cabinet from the historic ancient iron mines on Elba Island. The preferential striated faces add much character. Complete all-around and pristine. From an old European collection. Excellent, rich and showy Elba Island pyrite. The island is one of the most classic localities for the species and this is a very fine example. This is from the collection of Colin Manlove, a careful locality collector. It has his label glued to the bottom indicating locale, although it admittedly looks Peruvian at first glance. However, we have seen old Elba and Italian material from the Fioravanti collection, which Manlove would have purchased from in his time, that looks like this. So we believe in his label, although need to say here up front that the pyrite does look Peruvian at first glance (although when you look at MINDAT, there are multiple examples of Elba pyrite which seem to look similar).