Detailed information
Species
Fluorite, Calcite
Dimensions
85 x 95 x 45
mm
Weight
308 g
Locality
Shangbao Mine, Leiyang County Hengyang Prefecture Hunan Province, China
Condition
No recorded repairs
Fluorite is a mineral that has grown in popularity over the past two decades fuelled by its diversity of colours and crystal forms. Some deposits have one colour, or crystal habit, from which they are instantly recognizable (think Hilton mine in England with its amber coloured twinned cubes), but others, such as many of the famous Chinese occurrences present an extreme diversity even within one mine. Shangbao mine in Leiyang County, Hunan Province is one such example but one crystal form really jumps out from the others as special, and that is the cubo-octahedron with complex stepped octahedral faces. This choice small cabinet display specimen heralds from Jesse Fisher's collection and has exceptional aesthetics as one would expect. A creamy-white base of small aggregated scalenohedral Calcite crystals hosts two magnificent pale purple, colour-zoned, Fluorite crystals, both of which are 4 cm across. They overlap very slightly, but sit wonderfully well to present their marvelous structure whose detail can be studied for ages. A really lovely Chinese Fluorite with superb pedigree.
