A Nearly Extinct Mineral, the Blue John

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

The Blue John was used for decoration in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It is a blue variety of fluorite, which is extracted from a Derbyshire cavern. The French called it "Bleu et jaune" and the English transcribed phonetically this name into Blue John. Its first user was Robert Adam. The deposit is now almost exhausted.

The size of the ore does not exceed twenty centimeters, and a vase 75 cm high is always an assembly. Sotheby's sells one of this size, shaped as an ancient crater, in New York on April 9. Made circa 1815 by a local craftsman named James Shore, it is therefore an artefact of the Regency era. Its design is based on a drawing by Percier and Fontaine.

The estimate is 60 K$. However, Sotheby's catalog said they have sold another Blue John vase of the same signature, smaller, 240 K$ inclusive on April 7, 2004. For the 2009 copy, they announce restorations. This may explain the price difference.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

The estimate was far too timid, but was offset by the information concerning the result of 2004. Our vase reached 150 K $ including expenses.