Elbaite with Quartz Tourmaline

Unknown Owner

Help improve this recordNo owner is registered for this specimen yet. If it's yours or you know more about it, you can add the owner, provenance, publications and other details.

This magnificent vibrant pink-red Elbaite (variety Rubellite) tourmaline from Coronel Murta in Minas Gerais state, Brazil has been repaired, but its overall aesthetic qualities really trump that fact, as it makes such an impressive statement on display, and the quality of repairs are so good that they are now generally accepted as long as they are stated. Enhanced by a little associated opaque white Quartz, for contrast, the gemmy, flat pinacoid-terminated tourmaline crystals really stand out exceptionally well. The longest Elbaite crystal reaches 6 cm in length and has a pristine, damage-free tip, and all of the tourmaline crystals are so bright and vivid. Along their length the tourmaline crystals show slight colour zonation, from light and dark, in part due to variations in transparency and internal reflections. With good directional lighting this piece is an absolute cracker.