Fluorite (rare locality)

Item Description

A hard to find Fluorite specimen labeled only as coming from Catron County, New Mexico featuring a coverage of frosted octahedral Fluorite crystals measuring up to 2.1 cm, with a rich blue-green color when backlit, and no matrix. The bottom edge of the piece is contacted where it was separated from the pocket wall, but the back of the piece is crystallized and re-crystallized (''re-healed'') where it separated from the pocket wall, so it's largely crystallized most of the way around. The piece sits nicely on its own without a base or clay as well. I've seen a handful of Fluorites labeled as coming from Catron County, and they were largely purple in color so to find one with such a wonderful blue-green hue is certainly rare. From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#132 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.