Heulandite-Ca with rare FLUORITE association

Item Description

A rarely seen large cabinet display specimen from the Gibelbach in Switzerland, a well-known steep ravine is noted for excellent Fluorite and Zeolite Group specimens. In my experience, it's quite rare to find Zeolites of any species associated with Fluorite, and this piece features a rich coverage of white pearly Heulandite-Ca crystals measuring up to 5 mm, which are associated with small soft green colored octahedral crystals of Fluorite on gneiss matrix. There was a humorous labeling mishap with this piece, as it was originally in the collection of Museum Regni Bohemiae (National Museum in Prague) labeled as coming from "Wallis Island", the Polynesian atoll in the Pacific Ocean (a French dependency), but "Wallis" is a synonym for the Swiss canton of Valais, (German vs. French names for the same state). A very impressive big showy piece of this classic yet hard to find material.
The piece was pictured in Collector's Guide to the Zeolite Group (written by Bob Lauf), but please note that the book is not included with this listing.
From the collection of longtime mineral collector Dr. Bob Lauf (Collection #1808), the author of the Mineral Collectors Guide books (Schiffer Publishing), widely seen at mineral shows and libraries. Robert Lauf grew up in Chicago and attended the University of Illinois, ultimately receiving a Ph.D. in Metallurgical Engineering. His scientific career included over twenty years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he conducted research on topics ranging from nuclear fuel, coal by-products, materials synthesis, microwave processing, sensors, optical materials, and biomineralization. He has been granted over forty U.S. Patents for his inventions, many of which have become successful industrial products. He is now a Registered Patent Agent and technology consultant.