Queitite (TL) ex Queit

Item Description

An incredible gorgeous miniature with sparkly, lemon-peel yellow color, that literally sparkles from across a room, this draws the eye. It is an important specimen of queitite - rather than the paradamite we assumed it was and as it was originally listed here, BASED ON an old label and old purchase in the collection, perhaps dating to before the new mineral was named. It is also just a beautiful mineral on its own merit. There are only a few known specimens of Queitite from Tsumeb according to Gebhard in his Tsumeb book, and this is undoubtedly one of the best of them! Queitite is a very rare lead-zinc sulfate-silicate and Tsumeb is the Type Locality for the species. Paradamite is a polymorph of Adamite (same chemistry but different crystal system) that crystallizes in the triclinic crystal system and we thought this was a paradamite but have since been corrected. This miniature is an important rarity as it contains two very good and very prominent, translucent, off-white, almost diamond-shaped, bladed crystals of what seem to be plumbotsumite (by visual ID, not by RAMAN yet), in association. These crystals are 1.2 and 1.0 cm across, respectively, which is huge for the species! The identity is given based on known associations and paragenesis now that we have established the yellow mineral is quietite after all.  Clive Queit was one of Erika Pohl's favorite dealers, and he supplied her with a large number of her finest Tsumeb rare species specimens, on dozens of trips to Switzerland over her active period. He obtained these specimens himself from a miner, hence the name. He had all the best, so far as we know, and have simply never seen a better one for sale (smaller comparables have been seen in the Pinch and Feinglos collections). The color on this piece is exceptional as well, consisting of a bright yellow, glistening, elongate cluster of sharp crystals that cascades from the upper right to the lower middle of the specimen, in direct association with the assumed plumbotsumite crystals. This is just a fabulous Tsumeb specimen in that it contains rare species and it's also so attractive! We cannot overstate the rarity of this specimen; and the combination with beauty elevates it to an important level of display quality Tsumeb material. Combinations are what makes Tsumeb as famous, as the rare species from here. This has it all. Valued $15,000-20,000 based on the very few other known examples sold in the past, mostly in thumbnail size and with far lesser provenance.