Detailed information
Dimensions
125 x 89 x 62
mm
Weight
456 g
Locality
Gletschhorn Furka pass area, Urseren Uri, Switzerland
Condition
No recorded repairs
This alpine Smoky Quartz really does have everything. It is widely accepted that the pinnacle in alpine Quartz crystals is the 'gwindel', a crystallographic peculiarity whereby several flattened prismatic crystals have grown in a line, but each offset by just enough to produce a twist, or bend in their alignment. Occasionally very large, most examples are chipped in some way on their edges and off-matrix because of the nature of how they were extracted from the crevices, or alpine-type fractures, within the rock. Finding a completely undamaged gwindel is extremely rare, and finding one on matrix even more so. This magnificent cabinet-sized display specimen has not only that - a perfect, damage-free, 5.6 x 3.5 cm gwindel, standing upright on a flat plate of matrix, but it is optically stunning: transparent, with a sumptuous rich brown smoky colour. Added to this, this specimen features many classic terminated prisms of Smoky Quartz, to 2.7 cm, equally as richly coloured and super-gemmy, and all perfectly free of damage. To top things off, a little deep grey-grey Chlorite is scattered across the granitic matrix. An absolute wonder of an alpine Quartz specimen, of the highest calibre.