Fluorite (superb ''ice'' crystals) on Löllingite with Arsenopyrite

Item Description

A fantastic cabinet sized display specimen of the famous colorless "ice" Fluorites from Huanggang. This piece features lovely, sharp, lustrous, GEMMY (virtually WATER-CLEAR) crystals measuring up to 2.7 cm sitting atop a matrix of flattened blades of metallic silvery-grey Löllingite which play host to well-formed individual blocky crystals of Arsenopyrite. The Fluorites show a textbook combination of octahedral (111) and dodecahedral (110) faces, along with small cubic (100) faces. The piece is in superb condition, with no major damage to the Fluorites that I can find. This soon-to-be classic material from Huanggang is beloved by collectors as it's not common to find Fluorite without color from any locality. All of the various colors in Fluorite are caused by impurities to the chemistry, so this lack of color actually means this is chemically pure Fluorite. An impressive and really fine quality robust display specimen of this fantastic material. BETTER IN PERSON than the video indicates. Valued at $2,500-$3,000. This is from finds of around 2010-2015 when such material was coming out of Huanggang, and much was sold to Dr. Stephen Smale when we was living and working in Hong Kong in those years. This was kept back by him, in his world-famous collection of Chinese minerals since then (only recently traded out due to duplication). It is, for this size, a very beautiful and balanced specimen in excellent condition that has a look a bit different from "all the rest." Along with amassing one of the finest private mineral collections in the world, Steve Smale is a renowned mathematician. His accomplishments include being awarded the Fields Medal in 1966 along with being the awarded the Wolf Prize in mathematics in 2007. You can read Steve's bio on the Mineralogical Record website ( https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/smalestephen/ ) or on Wikipedia.