This barite from Elk Creek shows impossibly good quality and super attractive aesthetics!
Luster, clarity, color and sharpness all are as good as it gets!
Matrix is a well sized rock with a cream-yellow growth of calcite and a barite side crystal.
In the middle of that matrix stands an upright 4.4 cm barite that is perfectly gemmy and with a wet-look luster that is absolutely top-notch!
With its wonderful amber brown color it is an amazing crystal in person!
It is sharp and flawless and with beautiful surface structure!
A towering cluster of black schorl is aesthetically set on a piece of rock matrix which is in this extent very unusual for Alpine clefts! The needle thin tourmalines are three-dimensionally arranged along a zentral spine and rises more than 4.5 cm from the matrix. Some of the crystals even show the fire-red color this mineral only shows when very thin and very pure. A remarkable piece of Alpine tourmaline!
Aesthetics and quality are absolutely lovely here!
The 2.9 cm ruby shows brilliant deep red color and is in flawless condition.
Especially towards the tip it is gemmy and brilliant cutting material!
There also is a small side-crystal which makes the piece vibrant and even more attractive.
The crystallized white calcite matrix is a perfect background that emphasizes the ruby in a stunning way!
A single garnet of beautiful quality is set atop a crystallised matrix of white albite, partly covered in some thin grey coating. The crystal is exceptionally well developed, sharp, gemmy, red and undamaged. A splendid specimen without any downsides!
Enormous size, quality and also the almost flawless condition are unique on this dramatic crystal!
It is an alpine rock that you can hardly get enough of:
The crystal is clear and shiny from bottom to top.
While it is largely transparent at the bottom, increasingly vivid chlorite inclusions come into play further up, making the crystal extraordinarily beautiful and appealing.
In the upper quarter, the beautiful and multi-layered phantom is clearly visible, almost like in a polished gemstone.
You can see this in the pictures above, but the entire specimen is far more impressive in real life than pictures could ever convey.
We have made a hand-held video for this crystal, in which you can see the inner workings of the quartz very nicely.
The tip is a bit rough, but not damaged and finely crystallized.
Further down, there are occasional associations with smaller quartz or chlorite, but only very minimal damage, which is impressive and almost unbelievable for a piece of this dimension!
Even the underside is not broken but completely crystallized, as you can see in the third picture.
It's hard to imagine what it means to discover and recover such a specimen in a chasm!
The vivid and natural beauty of this crystal is absolutely impressive and is taken to a whole new level here by its monumental size.
What makes the piece outstanding is certainly the massive size of 20 cm with individual crystals reaching incredible 6.6 cm long and 2.3 cm thick! A rich assembly of those large and impressive crystals dominates this specimen, accompanied only by some smaller quartz. The periclines are perfectly developed, lustrous and with an excellent porcelain-like quality. This is honestly an outstanding specimen as we have hardly seen before! Some of the crystals were broken during growth but are fully re-crystallized. Other than that this piece is all complete and undamaged, even on the underside. A marvelous specimen of dramatic size from a lesser known part of the Rauris valley, the Maschingraben.
It's a smoky quartz single crystal from the Cavradi gorge with a dominant size and exceptional quality! The crystal is transparent, sharp, highly lustrous and largely undamaged. Only on the bottom, which is in fact mostly terminated and intergrown with some residual matrix, you can see small damage. Further up it is all complete and flawless. There is a small side crystal protruding from the right, which also holds small adularia and some hematite microcrystals, adding much to the aesthetics and mineralogical importance. Highly appealing and with great showcase presence!
This gem crystal of brookite is very aesthetically situated on matrix.The quality of the crystal is very fine with red color. There are some small cracks at the base of the crystal, tough it is not repaired. Very nice and low priced for what it is.
This titanite comes from an old find made in the Swiss Alps! Most of the titanites in the Alps comes from Austria and it is almost impossible to get a good "sphene" from other countries in the Alps! This is a very good sample and a good chance for every locality collector to get a sphene from Switzerland. It is very pristine except some extremely tiny edge wear that is just visible with a good loupe!
That's a half-open and half-closed gwindel! It is extremely rare to find this combination at a gwindel. This is a very lovely specimen from a small lot of five gwindels that I have got at the mineral show in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines this year. Some very tiny edge wear is present but this is almost not visible from the front side and not important at all. The pictures show all what you need to know to see how nice this specimen is.
A very clear and sharp crystal of quartz shooting out of a very nice matrix from Val Strem. The crystal is completely translucent without any cracks and is completely flawless all around. Better in person.
The composition of this specimen is exceptional. The crystals have a very nice purple color and it is very 3-dimensional in person.