Epidote (GEMMY "Faden" group) (ex Rich Kosnar Collection)

Item Description

This piece is from the collection of the well-known mineral dealer Richard Kosnar, who was a serious collector of Alpine and "Alpine-Type" minerals from around the world. He was especially fond of Epidote from the European Alpine clefts and the nearly identical deposits in Pakistan. 20+ years ago, we saw many good quality specimens of this material on the market, but it has become increasingly rare to find excellent specimens such as this from Tormiq. The Pakistani specimens are seemingly identical to their classic European Alpine counterparts, and an argument can be made that in certain instances, they the European specimens have been surpassed with regard to overall quality and gemminess. This grogeous three-dimensional small cabinet a very showy, multi-terminated, sharp, highly lustrous "Faden" crystal group featuring excellent, GEM quality, olive oil green colored "sword"-shaped crystals which are intergrown with acicular blue-grey colored "Byssolite" (most likely Actinolite). "Faden" is the German word for "string" and you can clearly see how the piece grew along the fibrous "strings" at the center of the specimen. The piece is nearly 100% damage free, just a few minor imperfections, and looks fantastic from either side. The pleochroism is actually pretty good on this one despite the thin nature of the crystals as you can see it change from a golden green to a soft tan color when rotated in the light. The largest Epidote crystal measures 2.7 cm long. From the Rich Kosnar Collection, valued at $1500.