CHFLO-07
Fluorite on Dolomite
Shangbao, Hunan Province, China
Cabinet, 10.0 x 6.0 x 4.3 cm
SOLD
This is from a new pocket found at the end of 2008, and quietly trickled into Tucson in 2009. It is a select, cherry-picked piece featuring a zoned, multicolored 2.8-cm fluorite perched on beautiful, lustrous, dolomite crystals. The dolomites have a porcelain-like quality to them and the stark contrast in texture and geometry is appealing. The fluorite is pristine. The dolomite has one broken crystal in the front-middle-right side, which is trivial. The piece displays wonderfully but I must say has a sawed surface on the upper-right edge (which you do not see form the display face, anyhow). So, the piece is offered at a reduced price if I do not have to go and manually work down the sawed edge to hide the flat mark facing to the rear, ad would be moreexpensive otherwise. This may not bother some people, and if so you get a good deal for it. I know that quality specimens from this pocket were going for prices much higher than this, under the table and privately at Tucson. It will, in retrospect, turn out to be one of the more interesting fluorite combinations from China and is really a unique combination so far as I can see. NOTE: these exhibit the photographic property of metamerism. They change colors from halogen and professional bulbs (more blue) to indoor fluorescent lighting and even natural sunlight (more green). Examples from both are shown here. The change is startling if you do not expect it, and quite pronounced in the right lighting.