Fire Agate

Item Description

A beautiful classic polished piece of Fire Agate from what is the top area in the world for the material. Fire Agate is at its finest from the Mexican states Aguascalientes. Agate is defined as form of Chalcedony or microcrystalline Quartz which forms in layers in a remarkable variety of colors and textures. The most familiar Agates are typically banded, with multicolored layers. Fire Agate is different, as it's a brown Agate which has a botryoidal or grape-like growth form. What is special about fire agate is that it contains layers of plate-like crystals of iron oxide (limonite) in various planes. The iridescent colors of red, gold, green and, occasionally, blue-violet, result from interference between diffracted light rays traveling through and reflecting from these thin layers. High quality Fire Agates can be as impressive in their play of color as fine Black Opal, but Fire Agate is significantly more durable than Opal. Fire Agate is suitable for any kind of jewelry, including rings. This piece is a nice example of this well known material, polished on the display side to better show the rich golden, orange, yellow, green and VERY slight lavender tones when the piece is rotated in the light. The botryoidal forms and high polish on the surface are both excellent. It should be noted that Fire Agate has only been available commercially in the last 60 years.
From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#119 Mx), a well-known German collector all over Europe with worldwide contacts to dealers and collectors. He started collecting seriously at the age of 14 and his great and varied worldwide collection reached over 6000 pieces. He was very active mineralogically until shortly before his passing in 2020 at the age of 82. Considering his collection had a large number of pieces, it still had an unusually high standard of quality from most worldwide localities. He particularly specialized in all classics as well as minerals of the Black Forest, where he spent much time collecting. His Black Forest and German subcollections went to his good friend Wolfgang Wendel. We at The Arkenstone have the privilege of offering the remainder of this great worldwide collection through our various platforms.