Museum: Calcite and associated minerals Section 4

Go to Fluorite Museum Section 1
                                                               
Go to Fluorite Museum Section 2
                                                               
Go to Calcite Museum Section 1
                                                             
Go to Calcite Museum Section 2
                                                               
Go to Calcite Museum Section 3

Pour les amateurs de calcite seulement
For lovers of calcite only

These calcites are almost all from a rare and now closed Belgium locality:
Solvay Quarry
Loverval, Belgium

The last specimen on the page is from the famous Mont-sur-Marchiennes quarry, now also, unfortunately closed

The story of these is that only two people ever were allowed to collect at Solvay. The crystals on this page were collected by one of these lucky fellows,  Armand,  a vegetable seller who provided extra fine vegetables for the wife of the mine manager.
A good friend of mine  Jacques,  a mining engineer who had helped Armand in the past  (and who is fortunately a fluorite collector and not a calcite collector) recently went to this vegetable and calcite seller's "garage sale" and sent me these specimens.

The garage:
Why don't I find garage sales like this in Minnesota?!

The specimens are shown in multiple pictures from slightly different angles. This gives you some sense of the glow from inside these wonderful crystals. Notice the well defined twinning planes on some, particularly on the last specimen of the page.
 

	A 6 cm twin on a bed of small calcites, on limestone.
	A 10 cm twin.
	What a place to climb! The final assault on the summit of this little known mountain near Brussels, Belgium, require rappelling nearly straight up 300 meters of solid calcite. Shown in the pale light of dawn.
	Gemmy little 2 - 3.5 crystals on matrix. They glow.
	Perpendicular crystals, 6.5 and 10 cm long
	The Millennium Falcon I call this one. 10.5 X 7 cm, capable of multiples of light speed. The small picture (center picture, below) shows the device charging it's main drive (large glowing structure in the back).
	Nice, gemmy 5 cm twin. Note the well-defined twinning line around the middle.
	Rare as it gets.  Note the interesting re-start of the double termination. Perfect and undamaged. I take it out in the sun and enjoy it. Unlike fluorite, it doesn't bleach!