Topaz on Albite

Item Description

A beautiful and now very rare seen specimen of Topaz from the Nujiang Valley in southern China, near the Myanmar border. These pieces started showing up on the market in the early 2000s and the pegmatite hasn't produced anything of note in many years. These iconic Topaz specimens were some of the first great pegmatite specimens to come out during the early years of the "China boom" of specimens. This piece features a few very sharp, notably well-formed, lustrous, pale silvery-bluish colored crystals of Topaz measuring up to 4.2 cm, sitting on off-white colored Albite (var: Cleavelandite) matrix. It's rather rare to find these Topaz crystals on Albite like this, only a select few pockets had good matrix specimens, and this piece is a great example of what was coming out at the time. It should be noted that there is a contact on the side of the largest Topaz crystal, but the rest of the smaller Topazes are in superb condition, and the piece can be displayed in a way that you don't see any damage. If you collect pegmatite minerals, Chinese minerals, worldwide Topaz specimens, or you always wanted one these now rare Nujiang specimens, don't miss out. Valued $2,500.
From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#335 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 coming months and years through our various platforms.