Phenakite

$1,750.00

$40.00 shipping
Seller offers an extended return window of up to 30 days
Ships from USA

Crystal ClassicsFeatured

Tucson, Arizona, USA

7,543 for sale·132 sold

The Tangen Feldspar mine is situated on the southern Norwegian coast at Kragerø in Vestfold og Telemark. It was a Quartz and Feldspar mine which worked a amphibolite hosted pegmatite on the western slope of Mount Sjåen. This site sill exists but collecting is forbidden by its owner. Although the mine recorded only twenty-six mineral species (not bad really!), many of these were very rare, making it a fascinating site. Its best-known species is Phenakite, the rare beryllium silicate, which occurs here as dark greyish-green crystals, an unusual colour for the species. This large miniature is a fine example displaying a terminated 3.4 x 2.1 x 1.9 cm Phenakite crystal standing vertically out from a matrix of cryptocrystalline opaque milky Quartz. It is from the superb systematic collection assembled by the brothers Martin and Michael Günther (1951-2007 & 1956-2021) and is ex Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences pre-1989.