Fluorite with Quartz "casts" after Calcite

Item Description

Here we have an attractive small cabinet specimen of this rarely seen material from the La Fluorita Dulcita Claim in south-central Arizona. You might have seen some of the beautiful purple "ochsenaugen" (ox eye) habit Fluorite crystals from this locality on the market, but this particular piece is a different style and harder to find in my experience. The piece is rather sculptural and three-dimensional due to the fact that it started as a group of scalenohedral Calcite crystals which were coated by Quartz and later dissolved away leaving hollow "casts" (some people call these either epimorphs or perimorphs), but the most attractive aspect of the piece is that a later generation of gemmy purple octahedral Fluorite crystals came in and covered nearly every bit of the underlying Quartz. The piece is crystallized on all sides, and only minor roughness can be see where it was detached from the pocket wall when it was collected. A must have specimen for any fan of worldwide Fluorites, unusual "casts" / pseudomorphs or minerals from Arizona.