Quartz With Hematite

Unknown Owner

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This is a world class quartz specimen from England of all places. It is a beautiful combination piece, displayable 360 degrees, showing brilliant and very large hematite crystals for the location (the old English Iron District). Hematite from here rarely forms big crystals, and these reach 1 cm as opposed to the usual sparkly druses of 1-3 mm crystals. The large quartz crystal is nearly 2 inches tip to tip and sits atop, doubly terminated and exposed nicely on the cluster - undamaged, I might add. Only a few small dings mar the periphery of smaller crystals, which hosts the big one atop. It was likely mined in the mid to late 1800s (see below) and from all I have seen in collections and museums abroad has to be one of the finest aesthetic examples of the so-called "beta quartz" from England. This is by modern standards, a competition quality piece: dramatic small cabinet specimen, complete all around, with brilliant luster to both species. I love it when history and quality converge! Note that I am told these are not true high-temperature beta quartz on a technical level, but they LOOK like it at first glance, certainly, and are often termed thus. The AE Foote label is probably 1880-1895 according to the Mineralogical Record's label archives: http://www.minrec.org/labels.asp?page=2&colid=477. Then the piece was in the collection of Mitch Gunnell by 1935 - and he was known for having an excellent English suite. A superb specimen in many regards, this is one of my favorites of the update