This unique association piece is a very rare major QUARTZ from the classic Cavradi clefts in the Swiss Alps that are known for their hematite. The association is well known, but usually balanced the other way, with small quartz as the host for hematites when they are found together. This is supposed to be one of the very finest of the associations with quartz dominance, from what I was told by the previous owner. It was collected by well-known strahler Kaspar Farner in the 1980s, and sold to Phoenix collector Karl Kempf (a lead scientist at Intel who built, over many decades, the acknowledged finest cabinet-sized collection of major Alpine classics in the United States). The Kempf collection was sold through dealer Wayne Thompson in the last few years, and I obtained this by exchange from him. It is hard to capture the brilliance, luster AND depth all at the same time because of the extreme clarity and brightness of the quartz. The shots are superb, to be sure, but even still, it is hard to capture the true 3-dimensional brilliance of this piece in a case. The quartzes literally sparkles like glass. The specimen is 7 inches wide, 5 inches tall as displayed on its custom lucite base. Joe Budd photos