BLUE JOHN - highly polished piece - Castleton, Derbyshire (archive)
« back'BLUE JOHN' FLUORITE
A gemstone unique to Derbyshire
Treak Cliff, Castleton, Derbyshire
A beautiful, small piece of Blue John showing the classic colours of yellow and purple. It has been highly polished on one side and left natural on the other.
Blue John is a banded variety of the mineral fluorite. It is only found in the vicinity of Treak Cliff, near Castleton in Derbyshire. Blue John has been mined for hundreds of years and made into jewelry, bowls, goblets, vases, and numerous other decorative items that are now prized throughout the world.
The origin of the name Blue John is not clear. It is likely that it was a local name given to the stone by the Derbyshire lead miners who already knew the zinc mineral sphalerite by the nickname ‘Black Jack’. Size: 6 x 4.5 x 1.5 centimetres
Weight: 71 grams
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