Quartz (Gwindel habit)

Unknown Owner

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A sparkling, water-clear, gem Quartz specimen showing a dramatic Gwindel (twisted) growth, totally characteristic of the occurences in the high Swiss Alps. It seems that clear gwindels such as this are much more uncommon than the traditional Smoky Quartz Gwindel specimens. For whatever reason, they also seem to be less expensive, not more, though they are just as beautiful! This piece is composed of six recognizable, imbricated, limpid and twisted Quartz crystals, two of which are disctly terminated and all have incipient geometric growth faces along their length as well as slight striations perpendicular to the long axis of the crystals. There is one doubly terminated Quartz crystal on the backside and then six smaller Quartz crystals at the base on the front along with one partial crystal. This piece just sparkles in a display case in a way that normal Quartz clusters seldom do. This Gwindel is of large size, has very good balance, and in excellent condition with only trace microchipping on three of the terminations that are barely discernible. Contacted on the bottom where it was removed from the alpine cleft. For whatever reason, clear and truly clean gwindel quartz is more uncommon than smoky quartz from Swiss locations.