Clear Quartz Gwindel

Unknown Owner

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Gwindels, or twisted quartzes, are prototypically smoky. Clear, nonsmoky pieces are very rare: literally, 1 in 100. Anyhow, all are rare to begin with, with strahlers risking life and limb to collect them in alpine clefts to get them. This is a superb, complete-all-around, pristine specimen from the collections of Steve Neely (Nashville, sold in 1997) and Francis Benjamin (quartz specialist in Bordeaux, traded to me last month). Steve's collection specialized in "best-of" aesthetics and size in the 3-5 inch range, and had little duplication. He only had the best. Francis, as well, is known for a pedigree of good collecting quality but in quartz as one of his specialties. Thus, you have two collectors with different collecting approaches entirely ending up owning the same specimen for different reasons: both valuing its significance and outright quality in quartz. The piece has a vertically rising gwindel almost 4 inches tall, flanked by psrismatic quartz. In person, its much better - it is so clear, its nearly impossible to photo well here...this conveys the gist of it, at least. I can tell you this is so good, I think it will never be upgradeable for what it is and in any case I will WRITE A CHECK to buy it back, anytime, on demand..