Hematite with Quartz

Item Description

This is a classic Hematite and Quartz combination specimen from the classic old English Iron District. It is a beautiful combination piece that displays well vertically sitting on the long bottom, showing off the quintet of sharp clear Quartz crystals upon brilliant and very sparkly Hematite crystals to 2 mm. The Quartz crystals range in size from 5 to 1.3 cm across and there is a later generation of tiny, less than 1 mm Calcite crystals sprinkled around the periphery and the body of the piece for added interest. This is a fine small cabinet example of the so-called "beta quartz" from England. These are not true high-temperature beta-Quartz on a technical level, but they resemble them with their stubby habit that essentially lack any prism faces. The black, sub-metallic Hematite plates and the Quartz actually cover an elongate septa of reddish Hematite, more typical of "kidney ore" that is almost hidden by the later generation of Hematite. A dramatic and showy piece that's hard to find in such quality today. It comes with an old John Albanese label (mid 1900s).