Prehnite

Item Description

A good quality specimen from these well-known finds that date back to the early 2000s in the Kayes Region of Mali. These discoveries produced some of the most well-known and significant pieces of Prehnite (often with associated Epidote) from any world locality. This piece features a solitary, good sized, spherical, lovely green color Prehnite "ball" sitting atop matrix, with little crystallized dark brown-green Epidote prisms. The Prehnite "ball" measures 3.3 cm in diameter. The Prehnite is gemmy/translucent, and it lights up with that glowing green color when backlit. If you look closely, you can see dozens if not hundreds of TINY crystal faces all over the Prehnite. It's not common to find a single isolated Prehnite on matrix like this from Bendoukou, as most of the time, you only see specimens that feature Prehnite and Epidote, and no matrix whatsoever. No damage on the front/display side, but there is a separation mark on the back of the Prehnite where the piece was removed from the pocket wall.
From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#4 ML), 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 through our various platforms.