Fluorite on Fluorite (two generations and colors)

Item Description

There is such a wide variety of Fluorites from the various mines in China. You can find crystals in virtually every color of the rainbow from China, and you'll often find them in good sized display specimen. This piece is a wonderful example of the well-known pieces from the classic De'an Mine. It features sharp, well-formed, lustrous, gemmy, soft purple colored cuboctahedral crystals which have overgrown and previous generation of gemmy, soft green colored octahedra, with no matrix. The largest crystal measures 3.4 cm on edge. There is almost a "scepter"-like effect when you look at how the purple crystals are overgrowing the green Fluorites underneath. When backlit, you can see the crystals pass light and have a lovely internal "misty" quality. The piece is almost a complete "floater", but there are few areas of separation around the periphery, so it's not 100% complete, but it's still in excellent condition. Don't miss out on these, as they are rarely available on the market now, despite how many were found years ago. Priced at $4,000 in the 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.