Quartz (Var: Smoky Quartz)

Unknown Owner

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This specimen is a rare matrix alpine quartz plate, hosting totally gem crystals to just over 5 cm, on a matrix of adularia-dotted granite. Good matrix pieces are hard to come by, and strahlers risk their lives to collect such as these. To bring out a piece like this, undamaged, the collector must recover it in a larger plate and then haul down the mountain a considerably larger specimen to trim later at home. It is not a collecting trip for the faint of heart. This was found by a very well-known strahler, Paul von Kanel, and was in his personal collection. The crystals, but for a few on the periphery, are totally pristine and all are clean and gemmy.