Epidote (uncommon locality)

Item Description

It should be noted that according to mindat.org, "The name of this locality remains doubtful. While "Handan Iron Mines" is a well-known mining company which runs many of the mines in the Handan-Xingtai area, as specific mine of that name appears to be unknown". With that said, the entry on the website calls this locality "Handan Iron Mine", and until we get a more specific locality name, this the best we can do in terms of a specific locality. With that said, this calc-silicate locality produced some beautiful Epidote specimens back in the mid 2000s, and very little has come out since that time. This piece is from one of the earliest pockets, and features stout, well-formed, rather lustrous, prismatic crystals with faint but attractive striations measuring up to 1.7 cm long, aesthetically sitting on matrix. The crystals are very dark green hue, virtually black, but there is a tiny bit of color that can be seen on the surface with strong backlighting. The crystals are in very good condition, with no major damage that I can see, though there is some interrupted growth in a few spots. Overall it's one of the better examples we've had to offer from this locality, and it certainly would make a good addition to any worldwide Epidote suite or a collection of Chinese minerals. From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#870 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 coming months and years through our various platforms.