Aragonite (copper-bearing) (fine quality)

Item Description

I imagine that most people are familiar with these beautiful blue Aragonites from Wenshan, but not in this quality. These attractive specimens get their alluring blue color from copper content, but typically you only seen botryoidal or nearly amorphous groups / stalactites with no true crystal definition, and most often they are either opaque or slightly translucent. THIS piece has notably distinct, sharp, well-formed, CRYSTALS which have a wonderful vitreous luster and good internal gemminess, forming almost "feather"-like "sprays" measuring up to 1.7 cm on matrix. Most of the Aragonites are undamaged, but looking closely I can see some small imperfections, but it's still one of the better examples in terms of luster and gemminess that we've had to offer, plus the fact that these are actual crystals(!) pushes it over the top. If you collect minerals from China, this is a really great example to add to your collection. I personally value this one highly based upon the many I've seen over the years for comparison. I would put in in the range of about $2,000 retail. From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#419 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 over the next two to three years through our various platforms.