Green Quartz on Calcite

Item Description

The Huanggang Mine is one of the most prolific localities in China, producing some of the most iconic and eye-catching mineral specimens from any Chinese mine over the last 10+ years. This piece is a truly awe-inspiring, highly aesthetic display specimen featuring a predominant, sharp, lustrous prismatic Quartz crystal with a soft green hue (due to either Actinolite or Hedenbergite inclusions) which is piercing through a "flower"-esque group comprising several highly compressed crystals of off-white to golden-brown bladed Calcite ("Blatterspat") and no matrix. If you look closely, you can see additional smaller Quartz crystals growing in multiple directions out of the Calcite blades. The piece displays wonderfully as you can see from the photos and looks good from several angles. Rarely does one encounter these green (Prase) Quartz crystals with Calcite from Huanggang, especially in such dramatically showy pieces. Priced at $4,500 in the inventory. Ex Dr. Stephen Smale Collection. Along with amassing one of the finest private mineral collections in the world, Steve is a renowned mathematician. His accomplishments include being awarded the Fields Medal in 1966 along with being the awarded the Wolf Prize in mathematics in 2007. You can read Steve's bio on the Mineralogical Record website ( https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/smalestephen/ ) or on Wikipedia.