Fluorite with Quartz

Unknown Owner

A gorgeous combination piece with rosy purple mostly gemmy cubic crystals of fluorite measuring to 1.8 cm on edge across a sparkling colorless quartz crystal matrix. This is in very good condition with just slight and tiny minor micro-cleaving present. The color is outstanding on this one. At one time part of the collection of David Straw. The Deardorff Mine (also known as part of the W.L. Davis-Deardorff complex) was an underground fluorspar and associated lead-zinc mine in the Cave-in-Rock Fluorspar District of Hardin County, Southern Illinois. It was developed around the early 1940s and produced ore through about the mid-1960s before being abandoned. This mine was part of a larger group of workings operated by companies such as the Ozark-Mahoning Mining Company and was historically one of the richest producers of fluorite (calcium fluoride) in the subdistrict, with significant by-products of zinc and lead. Collectors especially value material from the Deardorff because it yielded classic mid-20th-century specimens—notably vibrant fluorite cubes often with quartz, sphalerite, or galena—earning it a reputation as a noteworthy specimen mine during its peak in the 1930s–1950s. This current example is outstanding for this famous locality.