Quartz with iron

Item Description

An aesthetic cluster of sparkling, elegant, yellow Quartz crystals that are uniquely tinted by iron oxides from the Boekenhoutshoek area of South Africa. This is a specimen you have to see in total, in gestalt, to appreciate - and it is simply breathtaking and unique from all other "cactus quartz" of these early-2000s era finds. At least three dozen slender prismatic Quartz crystals from 1 to 8 cm in length are randomly, but artistically, oriented on this attractive cluster. All of the Quartz prisms show a preferential, second generation overgrowth of tiny sparkly crystals on the crystal sides that just add tremendous pizzazz! The entire piece is then coated in a splendid medium orange-yellow microscopic coating of Goethite that imparts a barely perceptible, and very alluring iridescence to the piece. This is seen mostly while moving it in the hand, or by moving your eyes as you look at it, changing the angle and watching the light play off the faces - especially noticeable on the bare Quartz terminations. Just a stunningly attractive piece! So far as we know, only one small poocket of this style of material was found sometime between 2000-2003, amidst thousands of specimens of standard quartz and amethysts. The color results from the presence of iron, as does the purple color in amethyst itself. This is from the famous Cactus Quartz locality, as such things are often resold as; but just form a special and unique find among the crowd. It is large, 3-dimensional, and unique compared to any other locality we can think of, makign this a significant quartz specimen in its own rights as well as a significant display specimen. Erika Pohl loved quartz (as we all should!) and had several large trophy cases devoted only to African quartz varieties, of which this was an anchor specimen.