Fluorite (complex crystals) (ex Dave Bergman Collection)

Item Description

This is a wonderful old-time Fluorite from Naica dating back to the 1970s. The piece features notably modified / complex crystal faces with a predominant crystal at the top of the showing clear cubic, dodecahedral and octahedral faces perched atop a highly "stepped" Fluorite crystal which is oriented into an octahedral shape, but is loaded with hundreds of little modifying faces. The color ranges from soft green to lavender hues, and the crystal is quite gemmy when backlit. Minor Pyrite and Calcite can be seen in spots. No major damage on the top/display side, but the piece is contacted on the base where it was removed from the pocket wall. Hard to photograph, the piece looks better in person, and it's a truly eye-catching and fine quality example of these well-known Fluorites. If you look through the top of the uppermost crystal, you can see some tiny cuboctahedral Galena crystals frozen inside the Fluorite! From the collection of Colorado mining legend, Dave Bergman. Dave is now retired, but among other things, he was the foreman and primary person in charge of recovering specimens at the famous Sweet Home Mine near Alma, Colorado during the late 1970s. He is also the maternal grandfather of Brian Kosnar. See Dave's photo mining at the Sweet Home on page 58 of Peter Bancroft's book "Gem and Crystal Treasures".