Gersdorffite (RARE old classic from 1820!)

Item Description

This is the first and only specimen of the rare nickel arsenic sulfosalt, Gersdorffite that we've had to offer from this locality. Bad Lobenstein lies in Thuringia, Germany and the Tännig Mountain area was a well-known cobalt, nickel and bismuth producer, but crystallized specimens of Gersdorffite are virtually unseen in today's market. In fact, if you look on mindat.org, you'll see there is only a single entry that mentions Gersdorffite listed from Bad Lobenstein in the entire database! This beautiful miniature specimen features several, sharp, well-formed, matte grey metallic octahedral crystals of Gersdorffite (with the largest partial crystal measuring 7 mm), sitting on matrix. A light blue-green secondary mineral (perhaps Annabergite?) is present on the piece, but I cannot say for certain what it is. There is a hand-written label from the Gebhard collection that dates the piece back to 1820, so it's OVER 200 YEARS OLD! Don't miss out on this great rarity, you're not likely to see another again anytime soon, and we don't have another to offer.
From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#135 D), a well-known German collector all over Europe with worldwide contacts to dealers and collectors. He started collecting seriously at the age of 14 and his great and varied worldwide collection reached over 6000 pieces. He was very active mineralogically until shortly before his passing in 2020 at the age of 82. Considering his collection had a large number of pieces, it still had an unusually high standard of quality from most worldwide localities. He particularly specialized in all classics as well as minerals of the Black Forest, where he spent much time collecting. His Black Forest and German subcollections went to his good friend Wolfgang Wendel. We at The Arkenstone have the privilege of offering the remainder of this great worldwide collection for the foreseeable future through our various platforms.