Analcime with Natrolite and Aegirine

Item Description

Here we have a splendidly showy and rather aesthetic display specimen from this world-famous locality, known for producing hundreds of mineral species (440 according to mindat.org as of the time of this posting). Certainly, some of the finest pieces of Analcime (a zeolite species) have come from this locality. This miniature specimen hosts a good-sized, well-formed, 3.2 cm, textbook trapezohedral crystal of Analcime with a soft beige-white hue sitting aesthetically atop black narrow prisms of Aegirine with a couple of translucent white Natrolite crystals flaring out at the base of the piece. The Analcime is complete all around, and while there are a few small areas of incomplete growth, it's not damaged as far as I can tell. While this locality produced a large number of specimens for decades, collecting is now highly restricted, so very little is available on the market, and pieces like this are becoming hard to find, so don't miss out while they're still out there.
From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#15 C), 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 through our various platforms.