Baryte

Item Description

A classic Baryte specimen from The old Schemnitz locality (now Banská Štiavnica in modern-day Slovakia) featuring several somewhat thick, well-formed, gemmy, colorless/white bladed crystals measuring up to 4.6 cm on edge, sitting atop a matrix composed of white Quartz and dark Sphalerite. The majority of the larger Barytes are in good shape, but the largest crystal does have one cleaved corner, and I can see one small contact on one of the secondary Barytes. I love the beveled edges on the crystals, giving them a beautiful sculptural appearance. Showy and rather presentable, a good overall example of this classic, historic material.
From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#71 TS), 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 coming months and years through our various platforms.