Quartz (unusual "Faden") (ex Kay Robertson Collection)

Item Description

A lovely small cabinet sized specimen of "Fadenquarz" from the lesser known Swiss Alpine locality at Piz Beverin. The piece is very three-dimensional hosts several sharp, lustrous, gemmy, colorless prismatic Quartz crystals which are connected by a central "faden". The world "Faden" is German for string or thread, and there essentially a thread-like growth at the center of this piece that unifies all the Quartz crystals. What's unusual about this particular specimen is that the "faden" is partially exposed on the exterior of the specimen, which is highly irregular in my experience. The Quartz crystals are highlighted by small inclusions of greenish "Chlorite" near the terminations for a nice touch. Ex Kay Robertson Collection (#11267). Kay is a prominent California collector, who specialized in European classics (see the article in the March-April, 2007 Mineralogical Record and the 50+ page article in the German Magazine "Mineralien Welt" November-December 2017).