Fluorite with Quartz

This classic, characteristically German Fluorite is from the Marienschacht mine in the Wölsendorf Fluorite Mining District of Bavaria, and is of dark blackberry purple, dappled with a delicate plum-pink patina and small druses of golden-orange micro-Quartz crystals.  The intergrown cubic crystals range between 0.5 and 3 cm on edge, but average around 1.5 to 2 cm.  All crystals are opaque and are so dark as to appear almost black.  The faces are smooth yet display square geometric growth patterns with a lustre somewhere between glassy and waxy.  Where the faces adopt the lighter patina, their lustre tends more towards matt.  This is actually a shallow surface alteration to the Fluorite’s structure, so interrupting its colour to produce these lighter hues.  This delightful German Fluorite is ex. the Dr Joseph Clemente (1899-1987) Collection of southern Germany.