Fluorite (''ox eye'' habit)

Item Description

This is a classic example of these beautiful "ochsenaugen" (ox eye) habit Fluorite crystals from Arizona. This small cabinet sized specimen is features soft purplish colored octahedral crystals, which are intergrown in a way that they meet at the point to create the "ox eye" habit. The crystals have a soft translucency and an almost textured appearance on the surface. The largest individual crystal measures 3.2 cm on edge. The front of the specimen is in good shape, with no major damage, but it is contacted on the back edge where it was separated from the pocket wall, though you can actually see the Fluorites have overgrown an earlier generation of darker purple Fluorite underneath. A lovely piece of these distinctive Fluorites, which are not would one would necessarily expect to see from Arizona, which is best known for all of its secondary ore species.
From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#226 US), 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.