Smoky Quartz - unusual Gwindel

Item Description

This is a highly unusual Swiss quartz specimen, dubbed a "transitional gwindel" by Dr. Andreas Stucki at Siber & Siber, who sourced the piece for the Swiss speciality display collection of Brent Lockhart (Denver area). It was found in fall of 2009 by a strahler named Van Kannel and purchased by Brent in 2010, after it was selected for his significant quartz suite. The specimen is a dark smoky in room light, but absolutely gemmy and with a vibrant smoky-amber color when backlit. It is entirely gemmy within and does not take much to light it up and make it glow, which is nice. The piece is 360 degrees, complete all around except for a tiny bit of edge wear here or there. It has a beautiful, sharp shape. The comment about it being a transitional gwindel is to indicate that the left, shorter crystal hanging on the more simple textbook prismatic crystal, shows a slight twist that usually indicates a gwindel formation. That twist is unique to Alpine type quartz, and usually more pronounced. So whatever it is that causes gwindels in nature, which is really not well understood, seems to have been starting its work here as the crystal formed and for whatever reasons, maybe because it was attached to a taller and normal quartz point, the gwindel process was abbreviated or stopped as it started. The slight twist is there. Siber and Siber is, historically, THE Swiss dealership with expertise in these things, as well - it looks strange to my eye but they are much more knowledgeable and noted the same. Brent paid $1400 for this in 2010, and it seems like it should be worth more now. It really is not only beautiful, but unusual.