Serandite, Agirine, Kupletskite

This specimen features compacted, massive serandite crystals, with numerous faces visible where the crystals have developed tightly pressed against one another. They rest on a microcline matrix from the Desourdy Quarry at Mont Saint-Hilaire.

Associated species include a visible plate of very rare dark brown kupletskite and many intersecting prisms of black aegirine. Serandite from Mont Saint-Hilaire is celebrated not only for its vivid colour and sharp crystal forms, but also for its robust, blocky habit, a rarity within the wollastonite group, which more commonly forms slender or fibrous crystals. This piece was collected by Peter Tarassoff in the spring of 1973, and although minor imperfections are present, it remains a wonderful specimen that displays well and has notable provenance from a classic locality.