Fluorite (beautiful multicolor ''phantom'' crystals) (ex Dr. Stephen Smale Collection)

Item Description

A beautiful and rarely seen specimen from Yiwu in Zhejiang, China featuring several wonderful, very gemmy, beautiful multicolor cubic crystals of Fluorite sitting on well-crystallized white pyramidal Quartz matrix. The colors seen within the Fluorites are a unique combination of pastel blue, purple and orange with some slight pale golden hues on the edges. There are some well-defined internal square/cubic "phantom" lines that are easily seen when the Fluorites are backlit. This particular style is exceedingly rare from Yiwu, and likely not to be seen again in the future, as only a handful were found to the best of my knowledge, and a cabinet sized display specimen like was incredibly hard to find. The largest Fluorite crystal measures 2.6 cm on edge. No major damage that I can find, only tiny superficial roughness in a few spots that you really can't see without a loupe. Please note that the piece has been sawn on the bottom to allow it to display more easily. If you collect worldwide Fluorites, Chinese minerals or unique display specimens, this is a really interesting and rarely seen example that would make a superb addition to your collection. Priced at $4,500 in our inventory. Ex Dr. Stephen Smale Collection. Along with amassing one of the finest private mineral collections in the world, Steve is a renowned mathematician. His accomplishments include being awarded the Fields Medal in 1966 along with being the awarded the Wolf Prize in mathematics in 2007. You can read Steve's bio on the Mineralogical Record website ( https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/smalestephen/ ) or on Wikipedia.