Fluorite overgrowing Quartz (rare style for the locality)

Item Description

The famous Yaogangxian Mine in China is one of the premier specimen producers in the entire country, and it has yielded some top-notch Fluorites over the years. This piece is a completely different style from anything I've seen from this mine as it features white, semi-stalactitic, spherical "spires" of micro crystallized Quartz, which have been overgrown by tiny rich purple cubic Fluorite. Most of the Quartz has been enveloped by the Fluorite, but a good number of them were not fully covered, allowing them to poke their heads out if you will. The piece looks best under magnification, but you can easily get the full idea of what's going on once you know what you're looking at. The matrix appears to have some kind of secondary copper mineral, like Chrysocolla, but I can't say for certain what it might be. This is a strange one to be sure, certainly an oddball piece, but still quite pretty and virtually damage free on the display side. If you collect Fluorites, Chinese minerals or just unique / intersting specimens, this is something that you might not find anywhere else, so don't miss out.
From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#572 C), 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 over the coming months and years through our various platforms.