Galena with Siderite on Quartz

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Of all the world's Siderite occurrences Neudorf in the Harz Mountains, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany is the one that captures the imagination of mineral collectors the most. However, it is not just the Siderite crystals, but their combination with perfect cubo-octahedral Galena crystals and a contrasting white Quartz matrix which sets pulses racing. The Siderite - an iron carbonate mineral - is usually fudge coloured, exudes a gorgeous resinous lustre and presents as superb 1 to 2 cm sized rhombic crystals. This excellent, very large miniature specimen from Neudorf, features much darker brown coloured Siderite rhombs, but with mottled colour shades caused by the internal play of light along cleavage planes. These Siderite crystals span the edges of the specimen, providing a much more 3-dimensional feel, with a small area of small terminated Quartz crystals at its centre and with at least two excellent dark blue-grey metallic cubo-octahedral Galena crystals perched on one side. A true German classic, and a magnificently crystallized one at that. Most of these Neudorf specimens date to the 19th century and there is no reason to doubt that this is one of them. Ex the superb German classics collection assembled by the brothers Martin and Michael Günther (1951-2007 & 1956-2021).