Sphalerite (fine crystals) (ex Kurt Hefendehl Collection)

Item Description

The famous Joplin Field has produced some of the most iconic Calcite specimens from any US locality, but the beautiful Sphalerites from this locality don't get enough credit. This piece hosts an excellent, free-standing 1.0 cm, deep reddish-brown ("ruby jack") crystal of Sphalerite with fantastic morphology and beautiful, smooth lustrous faces, surrounded by smaller Sphalerite of equal quality on massive Sphalerite matrix. Some of the tiny Sphalerites are actually quite gemmy when you look closely. The back of the piece hosts a soft golden colored crystal of Calcite and a light druse of white/grey Quartz. No major damage that I can find, and to have such a beautiful isolated Sphalerite like this is a real treat from Joplin. From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl, 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.