Quartz

Unknown Owner

Help improve this recordNo owner is registered for this specimen yet. If it's yours or you know more about it, you can add the owner, provenance, publications and other details.

Reputedly a soapstone (Steatite) mine since the 16th century, the Johannes mine at Göpfersgrün in Franconia, Bavaria, Germany continued operating right through until at least the 1990s in a opencast pit. During the 1980s and early 1990s some fine Quartz specimens were recovered by collectors including banded Amethyst, Smoky Quartz crystals and sprays of colourless to white Quartz crystals. This excellent cabinet-sized display specimen from Hans Engelbrecht's collection features a lovely, 7.5 cm wide hedgehog-like radiating spray of terminated predominantly white crystals at one end of thin cream coloured matrix, with a well-defined 6 cm wide 'bow-tie' spray of Quartz crystals at the other end. There is no obvious damage to the tips of these Quartz crystals and many display unusual stepped prism sides, adding to their character.