Inesite with Natrolite

Item Description

Inesite is an uncommon calcium manganese iron silicate species, and some of the finest examples ever found are those from the famous Wessels in the Kalahari Manganese Field of South Africa. This piece is a showy cabinet sized display specimen hosting attractive rich orange-red "fan"-shaped groups of Inesite associated with white thin prismatic crystals of Natrolite, sitting on matrix. The central portion of the piece is in good condition, but the peripheral edge is a bit rough where the piece was removed from the pocket wall. The piece sits quite nicely on its own without the aid of a base or clay. Very few of these are now available on the market these days, so if you missed out on them 15+ years ago, now is a great time to get your hands on a showy specimen of this classic material for a good price.
From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#23 SA), 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 coming months and years through our various platforms.