Smithsonite (classic material)

Item Description

An attractive old time specimen of Smithsonite dating back to the mid-1800s from the Altenberg Mine in modern-day Belgium, but was previously Prussia/Germany and at times part of The Netherlands. You'll see these specimens labeled as coming from Germany, but the entry on mindat.org pus the locality in Belgium. For reference, the city of Altenberg is the western-most city in Germany, located between Maastricht (NL) and Liège (BE), in what is called the "triborder area". This miniature sized piece features translucent, resinous groups of golden-yellow Smithsonite measuring to about 1.1 cm, on oxidized matrix. The color is a bit darker than most other Smithsonites I've seen from this locality, and they are certainly gemmier than most I've seen as well. From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#94 D), 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.