Sphalerite (GEMMY crystals) with Calcite on Quartz

Item Description

A wonderful small cabinet sized display specimen of these now hard to find Sphalerites from the Shuikoushan Mine. This particular piece dates back to the early 2000s. Today they have all but disappeared from the market it seems, and it's a shame because these crystals are some of the most highly lustrous, gemmy Sphalerites with intense glowing warm hues that you'll find. This piece features excellent, sharp, lustrous, very gemmy complex Sphalerite crystal groups associated with compressed trigonal crystals of limpid, colorless/white Calcite sitting on a layer of white sugary Quartz sitting on grey matrix. The Sphalerites are gorgeous in person and explode with rich orange color when backlit, to the point where you might mistake them for Garnets. Overall, the piece is in remarkably good condition as the Sphalerite groups on the display side are mostly undamaged, but there are a few tiny nicks that I can see. The largest Calcite measures 1.8 cm across, and the largest Sphalerite group measures 1.4 cm. This is a really nice specimen of this high quality material that didn't get enough attention when they were available, but are now sought after by collectors for their excellent color, quality and gemminess of the Sphalerites. Some of the finest specimens of Sphalerite in the modern era of mineral colleting are those from the Shuikoushan Mine. From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#156 C), 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.