Tarbuttite (excellent color and quality)

Item Description

The Skorpion Mine in Namibia started production in 2000 for the value of its zinc ore, but it has also been a producer of some fine quality zinc-bearing species such as Tarbuttite. Typically Tarbuttite is not terribly colorful, as most of the crystals you'll see from various world localities are often white / colorless, but the specimens from this mine have a gorgeous and rare green hue (presumably due to copper content). This cabinet display specimen features a central vug filled with highly attractive, lustrous, translucent, soft green colored crystals of Tarbuttite forming gorgeous "fan"-shaped groups measuring up to 2.3 cm across on matrix. The crystals do not have any kind of coating (some pieces have a secondary overgrowth of Skorpionite, Hemimorphite or Scholzite) and you can clearly see they have a glistening reflective luster. The central portion of the piece is in excellent shape with no major damage, but the edges are forgivably contacted where the piece was separated from the pocket wall Valued $2,500 for size, quality and color.
From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#149 N), 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 through our various platforms.