HISTORIC FLUORITE: CARNEGIE COLLECTION . ...

Description

HISTORIC FLUORITE: CARNEGIE COLLECTION
Weardale, Heights Mine, Durham, England
Robber Baron, Philanthropist, Visionary: Many are the claims and counter-claims about this enigmatic individual - Andrew Carnegie. Perhaps he was all of these and more. Starting from the bottom as a Scottish immigrant, he held a succession of jobs until at age thirty, he quit his last job in order to start his own business. This morphed into the Carnegie Steel Company. After another thirty-five years expanding the business, he sold the company to rival businessman J.P. Morgan for the unheard of sum of $480,000,000; an amount that led to Morgan's comment on sealing the deal: "Congratulations, Mr. Carnegie. You are now the richest man in the world." The next phase of his career involved as diligent an effort to disburse his fortune as he did to assemble it. Carnegie funded over 2500 public libraries around the world at a time when such concepts were truly radical: only rich people had libraries. In addition to developing a business empire that had few rivals, Carnegie found the time to indulge his passion for knowledge by collecting mineral specimens. This Fluorite was a member the collection that he assembled and displayed in his living room at home. His mineral collection was kept intact long after his death in 1919 and, in fact, the collection number it bears was written by Carnegie himself and has been matched with his catalog. It features sharp, lustrous, blue-green cubes just under an inch on edge, liberally coating a dark matrix. There is a moderate amount of the typical blue-purple fluorescence that Fluorites from this location are noted for. In pristine condition. Documentation of his catalog and a photo showing this specimen on a shelf, flanking a fireplace, comes with the lot. Ex Gary Hansen collection; purchased directly from the estate in 1984, Mr. Hansen kept this classic English Fluorite in his personal collection until 2006. Accompanied by a custom base, this historic specimen measures 5 3/4 x 4 3/8 x 3 inches.
Provenance: Andrew Carnegie; Gary Hansen collections.

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