Anatase (rare style and locality)

Item Description

When it comes to Anatase from Pakistan, most people are probably familiar with the steel-blue crystals from various localities in Balochistan, but THIS piece is a completely different style and color labeled as coming from Rakaposhi Mountain, which according to Wikipedia is a peak, "in the Karakoram range, located in the Nagar valley, Bagrote valley of the Gilgit-Baltistan territory of Pakistan. The mountain is extremely broad, measuring almost 20km from East to West. It is the only peak on Earth that drops directly, uninterrupted, for almost 6000m from the summit to the base." With that said, I have to believe this locality information is accurate, as I've never seen an Anatase like this from any other Pakistani locale, and it could have been from a very limited discovery. The piece hosts excellent, razor-sharp, highly lustrous, translucent, golden--brown colored narrow prismatic pyramidal crystals with gorgeous "accordion"-like stepped faces along the prism faces. The largest Anatase measures about 8 mm, and they are sitting on Quartz and "Chlorite" matrix. The crystals are best seen with magnification and we've photographed them with a Canon MP-E 65 mm macro lens to better illustrate the quality. A very cool specimen from a rare locality that would make a great addition to any Pakistani mineral collection or a suite or "Alpine-type" minerals.
From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#224 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. Priced at $1,500 in our inventory.