Fluorite (unique habit) on Galena

Item Description

A cool old piece from the Heights Quarry in Weardale, England featuring sharp, well-formed, lustrous, gemmy, cubic crystals of Fluorite which are nearly colorless, but show slight purple "phantom" zoning on the edges, sitting atop slightly weathered / altered cuboctahedral Galena crystals and minor Calcite. The key focal point of the specimen is the main Fluorite crystal, which measures 2.3 cm at its longest dimension, but it's the shape that really stands out. The crystal has what I would call an "L"-shape, which is due to the fact that it's actually half of a penetration twin, and the other half was cleaved away, leaving the odd form of the remaining half. A oddball piece that unlike anything I can remember seeing from Weardale, and a great specimen to add to any Fluorite suite, a collection of minerals from the Weardale/Stanhope area in England, or just a general collection of English minerals.
From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#69 E), 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 through our various platforms.