Fluorite with Schorl (ex David Burgess Collection)

Item Description

This is a lovely association specimen featuring a sharp, lustrous, rather gemmy, soft green colored partial crystal of Fluorite with cubic and dodecahedral faces associated with a black Schorl crystals and a single Smoky Quartz prism intermixed with bladed white Albite (var: Cleavelandite). The Fluorite measures 3.1 cm across, the Schorl measures 2.6 cm and the Smoky Quartz measures 4.4 cm long. Overall the piece is not damage free, as the Fluorite in contacted on the base / back, and the Smoky Quartz has some small nicks. The composition along with the wonderful color contrast makes for a fairly eye-catching piece. N.B. The label accompanying the specimen states that it's only from "Afghanistan", but it's very possible that the piece is from Dassu, Pakistan. The label also refers to the Fluorite as "Chlorophane" which is a term used for a variety of Fluorite that shows green thermoluminescence. From the worldwide collection of David Burgess (1951-2016). David was a prolific species collector from Newington, Connecticut, and the namesake for the extremely rare cobalt arsenate species Burgessite, which he discovered.