Galena and Siderite on Quartz

Unknown Owner

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Crystals of sharp, lustrous, complex galena cover a matrix of quartz and are associated here with the desirable brown, tranclucent siderite that is classic for this old historic locality. The galenas are typical Neudorf style, extremely lustrous with sharp terminal faces and complex sides, sometimes in elongated crystals, here to 4 cm. This MAJOR German galena specimen was purchased by a prominent German collector from American dealer Rick Smith in 1970. This was the same era in which he was trading many old specimens out of the American Museum collections, and in any case it is certainly from an old source as this habit and style is characteristic of the most sought-after Neudorf specimens, from the mid to late 1800s. Such large, robust specimens are very hard to find today on the market. They ONLY come from major old collections, and the occasional museum deaccession. The piece is in remarkable condition with only trivial and peripheral edge wear, and one area near the bottom of broken galena (although it may simply be contacting and not true damage there as parts of that irregular area look crystallized on a micro scale). Even so, I have seen few CABINET sized examples of any quality; and we regard this as a major specimen.