Smoky Quartz (fine quality)

Item Description

Of the countless world localities for Quartz, there are few that match up to the superior quality and form of those from the Swiss Alps. The best of these pieces are certainly among the most desirable and finest crystallized examples of the species extant. This piece is labeled as coming from Amsteg in the Reuss Valley of Switzerland, but no specific locality was given. With that said, this robust cabinet sized display piece features a predominant, 9.3 cm, sharp, very well-formed, textbook, hexagonal prism of GEM QUALITY Smoky Quartz, along with several other smaller Smoky Quartz crystals on a bit of matrix. The main Smoky is in very good condition, with only a few tiny nicks on the termination, but the rest of the crystal is in very good shape, save the back where it detached from the pocket wall. With that said, there are some obvious contacted areas on the front/lower portion of the display side of the piece, so it's not damage free, though several of the other smaller accessory Smokies are still in very good shape. Overall it's a showy display specimen with fine quality crystals and would make a nice addition to any Quartz suite, Alpine collection or a collection of European/Swiss minerals. Valued at $1,800-$2,400. From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#7 CH), 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.