Stephanite (classic material!) (ex Kay Robertson Collection)

Item Description

A CLASSIC example of one of the famous and elusive Stephanites from Freiberg! This district the the type locality for the species, which was named in honor of the famous mineral collector Archduke Stephan Franz Victor von Habsburg-Lothringen. Good matrix examples of this material are certainly few and far between on the market, and this is a very nice piece of this highly desirable material. The specimen hosts sharp, well-formed, stell-grey colored Stephanite crystals measuring up to 3 mm, which is fairly typical for the locality in our experience. They are sitting aesthetically on the underlying matrix to create a nice diplsay piece. This is certainly an old piece, and has a nice patina on some of the crystals, while others show fairly good luster. No real damage that I can see with the naked eye, and some of the crystals have formed somewhat "cogwheel"-shaped groups if you look closely. This is a rarely displayable old German Stephanite from the type locality that could fit in any collection. Ex Kay Robertson Collection (#8802). 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).