Baryte and Dolomite on Fluorite

Item Description

There are only about a dozen minerals found at the Moscona Mine, but the specimens are iconic for their distinctive appearance. The entry on mindat.org states that literally millions of pieces have come from this mine, and you can find them in collections around the world. While Fluorite may be the best known mineral from this mine, the blue Baryte crystals are excellent, and often found in association with the classic golden Fluorites. This piece is a showy small cabinet featuring dozens of sharp, well-formed, highly lustrous, soft blue colored bladed crystals of Baryte measuring up to 1.9 cm, sitting on a layer of curved rhombic cream colored Dolomite, atop very gemmy, cubic rich golden colored Fluorite crystals measuring up to 1.4 cm on edge. The piece is largely crystallized all around, with only one thin contacted edge where it was separated from the pocket wall. Very little damage. A great association specimen from this prestigious locale in Asturias.
From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#31 S), 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.