Amphibole (''Mountain Leather'') with Quartz

Item Description

A rarely seen specimen of "Mountain Leather" from the Shigar Valley in Pakistan. This material is a compacted fibrous form of several possible species, but in the case of these specific specimens, they have been shown to be some kind of Amphibole species - I believe either Actinolite or Tremolite. This specimen is a free-flowing, amorphous mass of soft beige colored Mountain Leather, which plays host to a solitary, GEM quality, colorless, prismatic crystal of Quartz measuring 1.6 cm. The piece was labeled as "Bergleder" (literally translated to Mountain Leather from German) in Kurt's collection catalogue. It's one of the very few examples I've seen from Pakistan, and clearly was found in one of the multiple "Alpine-type" environments in the high mountains around Shigar.
From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#171 AP), a well-known German collector all over Europe with worldwide contacts to dealers and collectors. He started collecting seriously at the age of 14 and his great and varied worldwide collection reached over 6000 pieces. He was very active mineralogically until shortly before his passing in 2020 at the age of 82. Considering his collection had a large number of pieces, it still had an unusually high standard of quality from most worldwide localities. He particularly specialized in all classics as well as minerals of the Black Forest, where he spent much time collecting. His Black Forest and German subcollections went to his good friend Wolfgang Wendel. We at The Arkenstone have the privilege of offering the remainder of this great worldwide collection over the next two to three years through our various platforms.