Fluorite (''phantom'' color-change crystals)

Item Description

An attractive cabinet specimen from this classic locality which mindat.org refers to as an ancient Fluorite mine, which, "from 1918 until 1948, produced 80 000 tons of ore". This piece features many sharp, rather gemmy, well-formed, textbook cubic crystal of Fluorite with a primarily gorgeous blue color and wonderful "phantoms" that range from colorless to purple to golden, sitting on Quartz. The largest Fluorite measures 1.6 cm on edge. Most of the crystals are in superb condition, but there are some rough corners/edges here and there. The crystals show a color change, where they are a light purple color in halogen lighting, and a glowing saturated blue in sunlight. If you look at the underside of the specimen, you'll see that the Fluorites grew on a previous generation of Fluorite with a greenish hue. Valued $1,200.
From the collection of the long time, beloved, well-known French field collector, Paul Zerfass (Collection #75). Zerfass built this worldwide collection over nearly 50 years, many of which were personally collected. A biography featuring specimens from his collection (along with his face on the cover) is in the May - June 2017 issue of French mineral magazine, Le Règne Minéral. We have a .pdf copy of the article for anybody interested in reading it (though it's mostly in French). Just drop us a line and know that you'd like to have a copy.