Zircon on Arfvedsonite (rare combo for the locality)

Item Description

Mount Malosa in Malawi is a well-known and distinctive pegmatite locality, famous for producing the finest Aegirine crystals in the world, but plenty of other attractive and special minerals. This piece features a rarely seen combo of dark peachy-brown colored, sharp, well-formed, Zircon crystals (metamict?) measuring up to 1.2 cm across, which are sitting on a rich green colored, slightly chatoyant prismatic crystal of Arfvedsonite. There are Zircons crystals on three sides of the Arfvedsonite, and most of them are damage-free. I've only seen a handful of these specimens in my life, and this one without question has the largest Zircons I've seen on Arfvedsonite from the locality. A very cool association specimen from what is likely the most famous locality in Malawi. From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#7 MW), 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 over the coming months and years through our various platforms.