Ankerite on Sphalerite (classic locality)

Item Description

Freiberg is one not only Germany's but Europe's great historic mining districts. Mindat.org reports that mining was taking place at Freiberg in the 1100s, and continued until 1969. The plethora of classic specimens that have come from this area, along with the fact that it was one of the richest silver deposits in Europe made it an iconic locality for centuries. This piece is a rarely seen, and notably fine quality miniature display specimen featuring a gorgeous, sharp, pearly, slightly curved, cream colored rhombic crystal of Ankerite that is beautifully centered against contrasting black Sphalerite matrix. The Ankerite measures 2.1 cm, and is pristine as far as I can tell with the naked eye. Such a showy and desirable piece from this incredibly historic mining district.
From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#6 D), 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 for the foreseeable future through our various platforms.