Quartz with ''phantoms''

Item Description

An interesting and certainly eye-catching Quartz specimen that was labeled as coming from the "Manikatan Mine" in the Kullu Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India. The entry on mindat.org only lists this locality as "Manikaran", with no mention of an actual mine. With that said, the piece is distinctive and certainly doesn't look quite like any other I've seen from India, so it's quite possible that it was found at Manikaran. This nearly full cabinet sized display piece host several very sharp, rather lustrous, GEM quality, colorless prismatic hexagonal crystals of Quartz measuring up to 6.5 cm, free of matrix. The two left-most crystals feature attractive internal ''phantoms'' comprising a green hue at the top (presumably from either "Chlorite" or possibly Celadonite or Julgoldite?) which transition into a rusty orange hue (likely iron oxide in some form), while the central crystal features a light golden colored internal ''phantom'', and the two right-most crystals have inclusions that almost resemble sparkling snowflake-esque forms. I can't say for certain what the inclusions might be, but they almost resemble "white moss" if that makes sense. The piece is in excellent condition, with no major damage that I can find, and it's crystallized all around. A unique piece to be sure, and really attractive in person. It's hard to capture all the beauty and intricacy of a specimen like this, even in a video, so take my word for it when I say it's best seen with your own eyes. From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#39 IN), 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.