Recently Handled Minerals
Cavnic Mine (Kapnik), Cavnic (Kapnic; Kapnik), Maramures Co., Romania
Size: 9.8 x 5.4 x 8.2 cm
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Calcite balls on golden dolomite balls on cleaar quartz, what a beautiful combination! Great texture, no damage.
Bigrigg Mine, Bigrigg, West Cumberland Iron Field, Cumberland, Cumbria, England
Size: 5.6 x 5 x 4.2 cm
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The crystals are sharply terminated, very glossy and show the typical Egremont-habit. They are pointing in various directions, some of them more exposed and freestanding. Ex Anton Berger, Mödling bei Wien - his label is coming with the piece.
Pasto Bueno, Pallasca Province, Peru
Size: 7.1 x 6.1 x 3.6 cm
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Pure candies! Sharp and lustrous rhodochrosite rhombs are perectly placed on a white matrix made of elegant needle quartz. The pink is hot and sweet, the best i have seen from the locality so far. And the luster could not be better either. Very well balanced, it is just amazing. 2 professionally done restorations.
Antsira, Sahatany Valley, Antananarivo Province, Madagascar
Size: 5.7 x 2.8 x 3.6 cm
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Wow! Red tourmaline at its best! Rubellite, opal, quartz, orthoclase and small phenakites form a gorgeous composition that reaches the top level of balance and aesthetics. The colour is an open and vivid magenta-red, it glows just in the sun or regular daylight, even without any backlight. Only less than half a dozen of tourmaline pockets on earth have ever produced a red hue of that brightness and intensity. There is one repair on the crystal group in the center, no restoration and no damages on the terminations. What a wonderful specimen, a dream of every tourmaline collector!
Mawi, Laghman Province, Nuristan Province, Afghanistan
Size: 5 x 2.1 x 1.9 cm
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Striking bicolour tourmaline with attached albite and a perfect diamond-cut termination. Great clarity!
Tsumeb, Otjikoto Region, Namibia
Size: 3.7 x 3 x 2.5 cm
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Lustrous, gemmy and sharp terminated dioptase crystals resting on snowy white calcite! The specimen shows really amazing contrast, the diopatse crystals feature best quality. Only minor roughness along some edges of less prominent crystals is present, overall in fine condition.
Tormiq Valley, Haramosh Mts., Skardu District, Baltistan, Northern Areas, Pakistan
Size: 5.8 x 4.6 x 3.1 cm
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Bright grass green titanite twins to 2.5 in size perched on mother rock. Superb aesthetics combined with perfect condition.
Shigar Valley, Skardu District, Gilgit, Baltistan, Northern Areas, Pakistan
Size: 6 x 1.7 x 1.5 cm
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A lustrous gemmy and water-clear crystal with a crazy habit - it developed a significant zepter with additional modifications along the end-points. Well formed 360°, on same high quality all around and in fine condition damage-wise.
Yaogangxian Mine, Yizhang Co., Chenzhou Prefecture, Hunan Province, China
Size: 5.3 x 5 x 4.8 cm
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A purple fluorite crystal showing amazingly fine hoppered growth. The stacked cubes feature great clarity and beautiful deep purple phantoms along the edges. No damage, bottom side was on the rock.
Himalaya Mine, Gem Hill, Mesa Grande District, San Diego Co., California, USA
Size: 6.7 x 5.5 x 3.8 cm
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What a stunning group of 3 doubly terminated elbaite crystals in a cluster! The top terminations show sharp and large bevelled faces, and the pink colour is truly deep and intense, easily on top 10 percentile of the locality. The specimen is remarkably not repaired, just minor chipping is present on one of the lower terminations. This is, however, not at all visible from the front side and hence just a very minor issue. The specimen is a full floater and very showy all around, please note: the two pictures on top are taken from two different angles. Ex Lawrence H. Conclin collection, his label is coming with the piece.
Shigar Valley, Skardu District, Gilgit, Baltistan, Northern Areas, Pakistan
Size: 8.8 x 7.2 x 4.1 cm
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Gorgeous clear aquamarine standing free and upright on a lovely quartz and feldspar matrix. The termination is sharp and pristine, and even more interesting, it shows stunning bevels all the way around. Small riebeckites are included in the lower section, and another aquamarine crystal on the lower left side completes the ensemble. No damage. Ex Kurt Wintersteiger collection.
Santa Rosa Mine, Itambacuri, Doce Valley, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Size: 8.2 x 1.6 x 1.4 cm
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This crystal is not just blue - this is electric, neon blue and the intensity of the photo is just a shadow of how it looks in person. The clarity and translucency is fantastic, the crystal seems to glow even when it is lying in a box! While most indicolite world-wide are very dark and need at least moderately backlight, this particular specimen shows the color even under daylight, no backlight was used for the photo! This is truely fanatstic, exceptional quality. Sharp terminated and highly lustrous all around, no sgnificant damaes to report.