Skutterudite & Quartz (old classic)

Item Description

Sharp, textbook, highly lustrous, silvery skutterudite crystals fill a sculptural vug in quartz-rich matrix on this very fine and rich old-time specimen from Schneeberg. The crystals reach 5 mm. This cobalt arsenide specimen is probably more than 100 years old. Specimens from this locality tend to be more massive, and with smaller crystals. This specimen has fine form, with dramatic display of the major crystals and there are more crystals on all sides. This is, relatively, exceptionally beautiful for a skutterudite from Germany, as opposed to the much more common (and larger) material coming out of Morocco in today's world. However, these old German classics are still identifiable by different crystallization and matrix, and set a standard for European classics.