Fluorite (beautiful zoned crystals)

Item Description

Charming small cabinet grouping of highly desirable and coveted beautiful french blue Fluorite from the famous La Barre Mine. This lovely piece has numerous well defined cubes up to 1.6 cm of beautifully zoned Fluorite crystals showing alternating intervals of clear and blue zones with a strong inner blue phantom and a dark yellow core. Under magnification, one can see the final outer blue zone is actually made up of several sharp thin alternating zones of multiple shades of blue banding. The faces show highly lustrous windows highlighting the gemmy rich colors of the Fluorites mixed with frosted areas that appear to etched. The Fluorite cubes are resting on a seam of tiny white to clear needle Quartz and a layer of green and purple Fluorite. It is by no means pristine with a couple of rough spots but the main crystals are in good condition with only a few tiny nicks. Even with some imperfections, the piece is still an amazing specimen of a hard to find french blue Fluorite highlighted by beautiful sharp zoning. Purple LW UV fluorescence. This ancient fluorite mine operated from 1918 until 1948 and the adits were closed in 2000 (MINDAT). Ex. Paul Zerfass Collection #76, and self collected decades ago.