Goethite (excellent crystals) on Smoky Quartz

Item Description

A fantastic matrix display specimen of the rarely seen Goethites from the Becker Quarry, just a little bit south of Idar-Oberstein. What makes this piece so special is the sheer size and QUALITY of the Goethite, because they're actually crystallized! Keep in mind that a lot of Goethite on the market is either massive / uncrystallized or reniform / botryoidal, so actual crystals are RARE. This is a wonderful display piece filled with excellent, sharp, lustrous, reddish-black colored "needles" of Goethite forming a "spray"-like crystallized group with associated crystals of Smoky Quartz on matrix. The largest Goethite blade measures approximately 3.4 cm long. A fantastic and showy small cabinet with superb quality and aesthetics. This is something that most collectors don't even think about adding to their collections because it's a "black rock", but when you take the superior crystallization into account, you realize that these are some of the best crystallized representations of the species extant! Lastly, the pronunciation of this species is a bit confusing, but we like to point out that it was named after the famous German philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, so it is properly pronounced GER-tite (with a hard "g" like gold). Priced at $1,800. From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#617 D), 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 next two to three years through our various platforms.