Quartz (Var: Smoky Quartz)

Unknown Owner

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Water-clear, glassy smoky quartz crystals to 5.0 cm are richly and aesthetically scattered on feldspar matrix on this excellent specimen from the well-known Zinggenstocke area of Switzerland. Good matrix alpine quartz specimens are rare. The strahlers risk their lives to collect pieces such as this. To bring out a piece like this, undamaged, the collector must recover it in a larger plate and then haul it down the mountain. The larger specimen is later trimmed at home. It is not a collecting trip for the faint of heart. Pristine, except for the periphery wear. Ex. Franz Saller Collection.