“The " Freilich-Wilber " silver, from The Magnificent Mineral Collection of Joseph A. Freilich, auction at Sotheby's Sale, Lot 56., January 11, 2001. Crystal-Odyssey specimen. gemcrystals@aol.com.”

“A tremendous specimen of Native Wire Silver atop Acanthite crystal covered matrix! This would have to rank as one of the top three finest Silver specimens I've ever seen or owned. It's definately the finest (and largest) German Silver I've shown on the website. This specimen came out of the mines in Freiberg in the mid 1800's and was on display in the Freiberg museum for many decades before being deaccessed in the mid 1980's. From there it changed hands to Wayne Thompson before being purchased by Dave Wilber for the Joseph Freilich Mineral Collection. I can't stress enough just how large and incredible this specimen is. It's one of the true classics from the Freiberg Mining District and is a Silver collector's dream specimen. A specimen of the quality and caliber comes along maybe once every decade and this one will happily remain in my case until the right collector comes along and takes it for his or her collection. From Freiberg, Freiberg District, Erzgebirge, Saxony, Germany. With a gorgeous antique patina. Ex. Joseph A. Freilich Mineral Collection via Dave Wilber. Kevin Ward Personal Silver Collection.”

“There are many small German wire silvers 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 New York City. 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. Joe Budd photo. ”