Anatase with K-Feldspar, Quartz

specimen number:
2282001

location:
Crapteig, Thusis, Graubunden, Switzerland

description:
Lustrous sharp deep blue bi-pyramidalcrystals of anatase measuring to 0.5 cm in size across the top of matrix with potassium rich feldspar and minor quartz. In good condition. This comes with a previous label from The Lesnicks. This is shown at the end of the video.

The Crapteig locality, situated near Thusis within the Viamala region of Graubunden, Switzerland, is a classic Alpine cleft occurrence renowned for its superb aesthetic mineral specimens rather than commercial metal mining. Geologically, the site is positioned along the steep slopes of the Viamala gorge, where tectonic activity associated with the central Alpine orogeny created extensive fissure networks within metamorphic host rocks, specifically Bundner schist and quartz-bearing gneisses. These open alpine cavities provided ideal geochemical environments for low-temperature hydrothermal fluids to precipitate highly sought-after silicate and oxide phases, notably brilliant, sharp, dark-colored anatase crystals perched on clear rock crystal quartz and white albite. While never an industrial-scale quarry or commercial mining operation, the locality has been intensely sought after by local mineral collectors and alpine crystal hunters since the 19th century, with significant specimen recoveries occurring sporadically during early regional road construction in the late 1800s and later during major highway and tunnel excavations in the late 1950s and 1990s.

Operating out of 1454 Odell Street in Wantagh, New York, the mineral dealership known as The Lesnicks was a notable fixture of the mid-century American specimen collecting community. Managed by Stan Lesnick during the 1960s, the business offered free printed specimen lists and engaged widely in the mail-order trade and material exchanges. The dealership was particularly known among regional collectors for supplying well-preserved Middle Devonian fossils, fluorescent minerals from Franklin, New Jersey, and sharp fluorite and sphalerite crystal clusters from the classic mining districts of southern Illinois.

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