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

Item Description

This is a showy and eye-catching cabinet specimen from this classic French locality which mindat.org refers to as an ancient Fluorite mine, which, "from 1918 until 1948, produced 80 000 tons of ore". The specimen hosts a coverage of many sharp, rather gemmy, well-formed, textbook cubic crystals of Fluorite with a primarily gorgeous blue color on the edges and wonderful golden "phantoms" in the center, sitting on Quartz. The largest Fluorite measures 1.4 cm on edge. Most of the crystals are in decent condition, but there is some roughness in spots, and on the back where the piece was understandably removed from the pocket wall. The Fluorite crystals show a color change, where they are a light purple color in halogen lighting, and a glowing 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 $1,500.
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.