A stunning ensemble of transparent purple and green fluorite cubes. The dodecahedron modifies the cubes.

The cubes sit on pink lepidolite, an extremely rare association from the pegmatites of Aracuai ( sometimes written Arassuai ) about 120 km 
NNE from Teofilo Otoni, about 40 km W from Virgem da Lapa, in the 
Aracuai-Jequitinhonha river valleys in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. I thank my friend Peter G. Seroka from Frankfurt-am-Mein, Germany for detailed information on the origins of this specimen. Contact Peter for a copy of his comprehensive guide to fluorite world-wide (German language only).

I obtained this specimen on 3/26/2001 from Lawrence H. Conklin, while visiting his wonderful showroom in Manhattan.

Size: approximately 8 X 10 cms. 
Cubes are 1 - 1.5 cm

Another interesting feature of this specimen is its extreme level of fluourescence (left). Using recent Rogerley Mine fluorite as a sort of "reference standard" of 100, this material is about an 85! Brightest I've seen other than Rogerley. The bottom photo shows Rogerley on the left and part of this specimen on the right. The pure white in the middle is a paper ID tag.

Yellow, extremely gemmy, yes, it really is this color yellow in person. The outer blue zone is bluer than I could reproduce in the photograph. The exactitude of the zoning makes this exquisite  beauty all the more interesting, as does the tetrahexahedral modification on the cube. 

Size: The front edge is 3.1 cm

I obtained this from Rob Lavinsky

Pole Pod Section, Annabel Lee Mine, Hardin Co., Ill.
Acquired from Stan Perry

Note: The color was extremely hard to capture. The yellow is a lighter, clearer shade, the purple is close to black under ordinary light.

"Big Blue"

These are just a little smaller than  life-sized. I usually hate the web-shots in which one sees fingers, but I had to get across the truly incredible clarity and depth of color in this wonderful Hardin Co., Illinois piece. 

The inner material is a tender light green, with the edges and surfaces veined with grape purple.

Hunan, China

Size: The cube on top is 3.8 cm

Size: Largest cube is 1.9 cm

Rogerley Mine
Weardale District, England

Cubes are 5mm, note the dodecahedrally modified edges! A rare and beautiful association.
 
 
 

Dendrites of a dark mineral on surface. Cubes are 7 to 9 mm, and they have tiny dendrites on their surfaces. This specimen is very highly fluorescent, a bright blue white. It doesn't fluoresce in daylight like Rogerley fluorite, but it is as bright under the UV and a more white/blue color!

Ontario, Canada

Minerva #1 Mine
Cave-in-Rock, Illinois

Specimen is 16.5 X 20 cm

Ex-Joe Eburno Collection

Obtained from Tom Loomis, Dakota Matrix Minerals, who tells this: "Swiss Fluorites and Gwindels: A rare find at the Tucson show is Swiss material. There are a couple             (maybe three) dealers at the show, who sell alpine minerals. While Swiss and French alpine minerals are certainly not new on the mineral scene, new finds still occur and sometimes old material is re-circulated. Below you will find well crystallized specimens from high in the Swiss Alps, at elevations above 11,000 feet. Swiss fluorite of exceptional  red color from a pocket found in 1936 resurfaced and found their way  into the hands of one of the strahlers (a Swiss, high altitude prospector), who of course brought them to the show. I obtained the top three fluorites, which came out of the pocket. Vladimir, the strahler, said he has never seen fluorite as deep of red as these.