The town of Neudorf in Germany is one of the foremost places for Galena crystals, most of which were collected over a century ago. This fine miniature specimen from Pfaffenberg mine, features a prominent, over 2 cm wide, twinned Galena crystal on Quartz veinstone with possible massive Tetrahedrite. The shape is great and it has suffered little of the damage often seen on historic specimens from this mining district. Accompanying the specimen are three old handwritten German labels from which it can be deciphered that this specimen once belonged to the German collector Senator F.J. Kessler (born c. 1806) who lived in Frankfurt. One of the other labels mentions a specific figure within Hauy, but it is unclear if this is intended to mean that this crystal form is the same, or if this specific specimen was illustrated. A very fine historic Galena from a classic early European occurrence.



