Malachite

specimen number:
8282009

location:
Eiserfeld, Siegen, Arnsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

description:

A fine old time German specimen with thick crystallized malachite across the front of this quartz matrix. In good condition, the specimen comes with a host of previous labels including two from the collection of Kay Robertson. Another of the older labels comes from noted German dealer W. Maucher. The labels can be seen at the end of the video.

The Eiserfeld district, located within the municipality of Siegen in Arnsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, represents a historic focal point of the famous Siegerland iron-ore mining region. Geologically, the area is characterized by the Eisenzecher hydrothermally mineralized vein systems containing massive deposits of siderite and iron-bearing fluids, famously acting as the type locality for the mineral lepidocrocite. Underground operations and smelting activities in the region date back to Celtic and Germanic tribes several centuries before Christ, but reached an industrial zenith during the nineteenth century. A key historical structure was the Reinhold Forster Adit, a massive drainage and hauling tunnel that commenced operations on March 21, 1805, and served numerous localized pits before commercial transport through the adit officially ceased in 1902 due to advancing shaft-sinking technologies.

In the broader history of mineral collecting and specimen distribution, prominent figures frequently bridged the gap between classic German localities and global collections. Wilhelm Maucher was a highly influential German mineral dealer based in Munich who operated full-time from 1908 until his death in 1930, playing a crucial scientific and commercial role in acquiring early crystallized secondary mineral shipments from famous localities like Tsumeb. Decades later, American collector Kay Robertson, who was born in Venice but displaced to Southern California during World War II, built a monumental collection of over 12,000 meticulously documented specimens. Active from the mid-1950s onward, Robertson leveraged her deep knowledge of European localities and fluency in languages to assemble a world-class reference suite of German minerals, preserving immense historical data and ultimately having the secondary phosphate mineral kayrobertsonite named in her honor.

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