Epidote (''Faden'')

Item Description

Going back to the mid to late 1990s, we saw many good quality specimens of this material on the market, but it has become increasingly rare to find excellent specimens such as this from Tormiq. The Pakistani specimens are seemingly identical to their classic European Alpine counterparts, and an argument can be made that in certain instances, they the European specimens have been surpassed with regard to overall quality and gemminess. This toenail specimen is a very showy, multi-terminated, sharp, highly lustrous "Faden" crystal group featuring excellent, very gemmy, olive oil green colored "sword"-shaped crystals free of matrix. "Faden" is the German word for "string" and you can clearly see how the piece grew along the fibrous "strings" that run the length along the base of the specimen. The piece is nearly 100% damage free, and almost a complete "floater", but I can see a tiny point of attachment on the end. The piece looks fantastic from either side, especially with backlighting. The pleochroism is very slight due to the thin nature of the crystals, but you can see it change from a green to a golden color when rotated in the light. You just don't see pieces like this on the market now, and if you consider that most Epidote crystals around the world are "black" and opaque, this piece is in the upper tier in terms of quality for the species.