Gypsum with sand inclusions

Item Description

These specimens are incredibly rare to find from Gansu. We've only had a select few over the years, and this particular one is arguably the most sculptural with the largest individual crystals we've seen. The piece is almost a complete "floater", though there is a point of attachment on the back, so I would say it's largely crystallized all over. It's reminiscent of the famous Gypsum specimens with similar sand inclusions from near Jet, Oklahoma, though the crystals on this specimens are thicker and more pronounced. The piece features several sharp, well-formed, semi-lustrous, thick bladed crystals, free of matrix. The largest crystal is doubly-terminated and measures 9.2 cm long. When the large crystal is backlit, you can see there is an "hourglass"-shape that shows up due to the fact that the sand inclusions concentrated in the center, leaving the edges slightly translucent, allowing light to pass through. A very impressive and fine quality example of this elusive and beautiful material from an unlikely locale in China. From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#424 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 next two to three years through our various platforms.