Quartz (var. Smoky)

This smoky quartz crystal from the Grant Quarry in Greely, Ontario, displays the classic Herkimer-like habit for which the locality is known. The crystal is intensely glassy and lustrous, with striking internal accents from parallel-growth clay inclusions. It exhibits partial skeletal or hoppered development. It's almost a floater, if it weren't for a very small point of contact on the bottom and theres a teeny near-invisible blemish near the tip, but these are very minor distractions from an otherwise expressive and high-quality specimen. The Grant Quarry is part of the Beekmantown Formation, a widespread geological unit known for producing Herkimer-style quartz and calcite specimens across a belt extending from Saratoga Springs and Herkimer, New York, through St-Clothilde and St-Eustache in Quebec, to Greely, Ontario. Specimens from these localities are increasingly uncommon and represent classic Eastern North American material.