Sphalerite, Baryte & Quartz (old classic) Count Falkenhayn Coll.

Item Description

A rich and very showy old-time large combination plate from the historic mines at Schemnitz. Deceiving, lustrous, sharp, twinned sphalerite crystals, to 2.8 cm, appear to be an olive-green with hints of yellow. BUT, when back lit these beauties GLOW with golden-yellow gemminess! The solid sphalerite matrix plate is dramatically and richly covered with dense clusters of tiny drusy barite blades and quartz points. Ex Kay Robertson Collection # 9493 and acquired from Willard Perkin at the Tucson Show in 1982. It comes with an Anton Berger label, a promiment Austrian dealer, and dates from about 1929 to the 1950s. This old-timer from the Count (Graf) Falkenhayn Collection has to date to prior to World War I, when Schemnitz was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire Kay is a prominent California collector, who specialized in European classics (see the article in the March-April, 2007 Mineralogical Record and the 50+ page article in the German Magazine "Mineralien Welt" November-December 2017). This is classic style sphalerite with rich accessories from this famed locale.