Ilmenite (fine crystal)

Item Description

A fantastic, showy display specimen of Ilmenite from the classic Ilmen Nature Reserve in Russia. This might be the best specimen of this material that we've ever had to offer in the auctions. The piece hosts a fine quality, sharp, well-formed, fairly thick, tabular hexagonal crystal of a dark metallic blue hue, measuring 3.2 cm across, aesthetically perched atop matrix. The crystal is in good shape, but there are a few cracks and minor roughness, so it's not completely pristine, but it's good sized, and eye-catching matrix examples of this historic material are very hard to find on the market, you only see them in old collections.
Valued $1,500.
From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#3623 Ru), 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 for the foreseeable future through our various platforms.