A classic German silver, like one from Kongsberg across the Baltic, is a mainstay of a sophisticated collection of worldwide minerals. There are many small ones to be had, but large and dramatic pieces like this are few and far between. They really only turn up now as old collections are recycled. This particular specimen was in the Herb Obodda collection in the early 1990s, and then sold to Joe Freilich. It was sold after auction, after the disposal of his collection in 2001 by Sotheby's auction house of NYC. It remained in a private collection, for most of the time since. This remains, for me, visually one of the most dramatic examples of this classic material that I have seen. There is some debate about whether specimens are "old" or from re-mining of the old district during the Soviet era in the 1980s and early 1990s, and so without an old label nobody can say with certainty that this is old or new. In any case, it is a magnificent specimen of this classic style, showing both the thin wires atop and the thick, curling, ropelike wires at the base that you want for contrast in a great silver specimen. Joe Budd Photos.