The shape of this quartz specimen reminds me of the Swiss Alps' rugged landscape. The combination of excellent quartz crystals on a characteristic matrix with accessory minerals and accentuating iron oxide provides a nice, favorably chaotic picture. Especially the main crystal is impressive: glassy, nicely structured, lustrous and flawless. An unusual and very much 3-dimensional piece.
An especially lovely piece of epidote from the famous Knappenwand that is absolutely flawless despite its incredibly fragile structure of thin, glassy crystals. Direct illumination reveals the typical green and brown color. All crystals are of perfect quality: lustrous, gemmy and with sharp terminations. This piece is a floater and a really excellent one indeed! The video shows more of the brilliant quality and the almost magical composition.
Not only is the single schorl crystal perfect, lustrous and with a beautifully developed termination but the overall aesthetics is what really impresses here! The black crystal is set on a white cleavelandite and quartz matrix of lovely crystallization and perfection! Very often schorl comes a smaller side-crystals to other attractions, mostly in a rather unspectacular way. This specimen on the other hand shows in a most dramatic way how beautiful this mineral can be when developed to perfection and in such a highly aesthetic way!
Almost like a mushroom head, the adularia is clustered atop a transparent, prismatic quartz crystal. The adularia is covered in a thick layer of green chlorite leaving only the shape to let us know what's underneath. Still, at some spots the white color of the adularia breaches the dark green crust. While the quartz is broken at the bottom and backside - which is not visible from the front - the adularia is almost perfect with only a couple of small spots of damage at the backside. A great and highly unusual specimen of outstanding aesthetics!
A classic piece from this old mineral deposit that strikes with a unusually rich paragenesis. The front view immediately focuses on a hexagonal shape of pyrite. In fact this obviously is a large pyrrhotite crystal that has been pseudomorph transformed to or maybe just overgrown by hundreds of golden pyrite crystals. Further to the back there is a crown-like formation of white calcite and pink rhodochrosite adding nice color and shape. The base of this impressive piece is of massive galena, partly overgrown with fine quartz needles and even, at closer inspection, some gypsum. Large and heavy yet vibrant and full of pretty details!
This is a cluster of interlocked sharp metallic tetrahedrite in association with pyrite. The largest tetrahedrite is 2.9 cm on edge. The cluster sits on some golden shining pyrite. The backside is largely broken but the main view is in excellent condition. A characteristic paragenesis from the Mundo Nuevo Mine with dominant tetrahedrite crystals of considerable size!
Very nice and well balanced association of white quartz and bright golden chalcopyrite. This whole sweeping landscape is in very best condition and utterly appealing all over!
The piece is out of a new find and it is 100% lovely. It is incredibly aesthetic with a cluster of rich pink fluorapatite on a perfectly contrasting white albite matrix. The apatite is highly lustrous, sharp and shows unusual crystal habit. The piece is complete all around, with contacts at the bottom but no damage. Small edgewear is present but not apparent. Definitely a marvelous piece, very elegant and with no downsides. A real jewel!
An excellent, sharp and gemmy single titanite crystal of brown color is prominently situated on a sparkling piece of white and grey matrix. The crystal is flawless and of very best quality! Brown titanite from the Alps is by far more rare than the green variety and especially when it comes to this kind of outstanding quality, the air is getting VERY thin! Perfect aesthetics meets best crystal quality!
An excellent closed gwindel, surprisingly long and with a very distinct twist. The slender shape of this thumbnail specimen makes it very much unusual and exceedingly rare. There is just one minimal ding at the side but otherwise no damage. The crystal is clear with a lustrous surface that ist smooth at the front and slightly chloritized at the back as you can very well see in our video. An absolutely remarkable piece of unique shape!Seidenmatte Oberfläche
The octahedral fluorite aggregate on this matrix specimen is a staggering 4.6 cm in total, shows intensively pink color and is beautifully developed. The white feldspar matrix provides stark contrast in perfect proportion. I can't remember seeing any specimen from Zinggenstock of such exceptional dimension, especially in such flawless condition! Absolutely spectacular in person!
Wonderfully aesthetic and of best tourmaline quality, this is a beautiful and very well balanced specimen of liddicoatite with contrasting white albite. The single crystal is sharp and well defined with a flat, superbly lustrous termination. The whole piece is in best condition with some contact but no real damage - a small chip at the back is not fresh but re-healed. Give it some backlight and the intense pink color of the top zone is unbeatable! Lower down, the color changes to olive green and brick red at the bottom, all very much transparent and striking. A brilliant miniature of excellent aesthetics!