Detailed information
Dimensions
57 x 60 x 42
mm
Weight
190 g
Locality
Wushan Spessartine Mine, Tongbei Yunxiao Co., Zhangzhou Prefecture Fujian Province, China
Condition
No recorded repairs
Two, stocky, beige-coated Microcline crystals joined together in a stepped formation make up this unusual 'floater' specimen from the famous Wushan Spessartine mine at Tongbei, Fujian Province, China. Best-known - as the name suggests - for Spessartine, the 'mine', which is actually a series of small outcrop workings, has also produced some other fine crystallized mineral species. These really well-formed Microcline crystals, the largest of which reaches 5.5 x 3 cm, are covered in a thin finely crystallized film, but on one small upper crystal face this coating is absent, revealing the pale grey-blue internal colour of the variety Amazonite. There might not be any Spessartine present, but this is a really great example of one of the other pegmatite species found there. There are a few light scuffs to the coating on the Microcline, but they are very discrete, and a few other areas are possibly where the crystals were attached to the edge of a cavity.
