Large Quartz included with Astrophyllite (ex Kurt Hefendehl Collection)

Item Description

A remarkable and impressive large cabinet display specimen of the lesser-seen Quartz crystals included with soft tan to rich golden colored Astrophyllite from Zagi Mountain in Pakistan. Typically, these specimens are single crystals off matrix, but this monster specimen hosts a robust 11.6 cm crystal with several additional accenting Quartz crystals on massive Quartz matrix. The main crystal is doubly-terminated, but it's contacted on the back, so it's not 100% complete. The piece still displays quite well as you can see. The surprisingly high luster combined with the beautiful smooth crystal faces make the Astrophyllite inclusions really stand out. It should be noted that some of the inclusions might be Rutile, but the majority of what I've seen over the years has been confirmed as Astrophyllite. This is not a run-of-the-mill Quartz specimen, it's certainly the largest and most impressive example of this material that we've ever had to offer from this locality, and it's a must-have piece for any fan of worldwide Quartz specimens, "inclusion" minerals, large cabinet display specimens or unique pieces from Pakistan. It's hard to put a fair market value on this one, but I would certainly put it in the range of about $4,000-$5,000 for the impressive size and quality. From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl, 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.