Rutile (''Sagenite'') on Siderite

Item Description

This piece is a very attractive and fairly rare example of these distinctive Rutiles on Siderite from the Hashupa cleft locality in the high mountains of Pakistan. This small cabinet-sized piece features a full coverage of beautiful, orange-red needles of "Sagenite", which are twinned crystals of Rutile, sitting on brown Siderite rhombs that appear to have possibly pseudomorphed to Limonite. The largest individual Rutile I could find measures 1.0 cm. For reference, the term Sagenite is used to describe any Rutile crystals which are twinned at 60 degree (120 degree) angles and intergrown into a defined "mesh"-like shape. The term was created by Horace Bénédict de Saussure in 1796 from the Greek & Latin word sagena, which means net. Beautiful to view up close, especially with the detailed geometric shape seen in the Rutile crystals.
From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#111 AP), 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.