Epidote "Faden" on Quartz with "Byssolite" inclusions (ex Kay Robertson and Collection)

Item Description

A classic Alpine association specimen! Typically Epidote from the European Alps is not easy to find on matrix. Most specimens are loose singles or groups off matrix, but when you find a piece like this, it's special. This piece features a beautiful, sharp, lustrous, gemmy, 2.5 cm long, doubly-terminated (multi-terminated) "Faden" group of Epidote with the classic "olive oil" color. "Faden" is the German word for "string", and you can see a thin "thread"-like group that runs perpendicular to the Epidote crystals. The Epidote group is aesthetically perched on the side of a fine quality, lustrous, GEMMY, colorless Quartz prism which is included with thin fibrous grey-blue crystals of "Byssolite" (originally labeled as "Amianth", but it's essentially an Amphibole species). The Quartz crystal is in excellent shape overall, and the small, stepped faces along the the pyramidal termination are not damage, they are all crystallized. A superb example of a VERY hard to find matrix Epidote specimen from the Swiss Alps. If you collect Alpine minerals, this one is certainly worth picking up, especially because it's Swiss, which tend to have a higher value on the market. Ex Kay Robertson Collection (#12912). Kay is a prominent California collector, who specialized in European classics (see the article in the March-April, 2007 Mineralogical Record and the 50+ page article in the German Magazine "Mineralien Welt" November-December 2017).