Fluorite (Yellow and Purple Duo)

Unknown Owner

Help improve this recordNo owner is registered for this specimen yet. If it's yours or you know more about it, you can add the owner, provenance, publications and other details.

This dramatic piece is the fluorite version of a "fire and ice" contrast, with stark color duality. I think the photos speak for themselves, although this is even better in person. This specimen has no repairs (it is nearly undamaged as well, though I made the choice to have a few small dings restored for the cleaner edges, with color-matched restorative epoxy). Overall, just a major fluorite, but also one of a totally unique style that makes it stand out from all the others we so often see. Like others from Dick Heck, this is a masterpiece for the Illinois fluorite district, and was chosen for its unique aesthetics at a time when the mines were in production. The collection of Dr. Richard "Dick" Heck was considered one of the finest collections of Illinois fluorites and associated minerals assembled during the active life of the mine. It disappeared in an inheritance spat for over a decade, and resurfaced in 2011 (with me, fortunately!). I knew Dick as a kid, and he taught me the difference between paying a fair price for "good minerals" and a high price for "premium minerals," and in fact it was from him that I was exposed to my first issues of the Mineralogical Record magazine while we sat next to each other in the Cincinnati show trade/swap tables (me, barely a high school kid; him, a retired dentist already). Joe Budd Photos.