Scheelite with Bertrandite (RARE association)

Item Description

This is a very enticing old classic Scheelite from the renowned Tae Hwa Mine in South Korea. This piece is not just a Scheelite, which is rare enough to find in today's market, but it has an incredibly rare associated of Bertrandite(!), which is the only one of its kind we've ever had to offer in the auctions. As a matter of fact, the entry for this locality on mindat.org doesn't list a single photo of Bertrandite, so this is a big deal. The Scheelites on this specimen are sharp, well-formed, lustrous, dark purplish-brown colored pseudo-octahedral crystals with no matrix. There are a handful of lustrous, translucent, silvery-white colored bladed crystals of Bertrandite measuring up to 7 mm, sitting atop the Scheelites, along with some incomplete Bertrandites on the back. There are a few little nicks to the Scheelite crystals, but the piece is largely damage-free. These specimens are SCARCE on the market now and it would be incredibly difficult to find another with the rare Bertrandite association, so if you're a fan of Scheelite, tungsten minerals or specimens from Korea, don't miss out on this one, as they were mined several decades ago, and will never be found again. Before anything was coming out of China with any regularity, the Scheelites from the Tae Hwa Mine were considered to be the finest examples ever found, and for my taste some of them are still in the top echelon of the species. I value this one highly because of the Bertrandite association, and I would put it on the shelf at a show with a price tag of about $2,000 retail. From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#21 KO), 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 next two to three years through our various platforms. Priced at $1,800 in our inventory