Stilbite (superb rare locality specimen!) (ex Kurt Hefendehl Collection)

Item Description

The Fengjiashan Mine (Daye Mine), is best known for its wonderful Calcites and Amethyst, along with rarities like Inesite and Hubeite, but there was a small discovery of some fine quality Stilbite specimens, which is not what you would expect from an iron/copper mine. This piece is one of the finest examples that we've had to offer from this famed locality. It is not only a robust near full sized cabinet display specimen, but the quality of the Stilbite crystals is superb. Dozens of excellent soft golden colored crystal aggregates of Stilbite (some of which have formed attractive "wheat sheaf"-shaped groups) measuring up to 1.3 cm are covering small stacked groups of grey Calcite crystals on layer of Quartz coating a blocky chunk of Calcite underneath. The almost "wet" looking vitreous luster of the Stilbite crystals is as good as I've seen from the locality, and the fact that the vast majority of the Stilbite crystals are undamaged is significant. A very impressive and highly desirable piece of this incredibly hard to find material from the Fengjiashan Mine. I would put a price on this one in the range $2,500-$3,500 range. 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.