Tourmaline (sceptered) - classic find

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Barra do Salinas produced a now-classic style of striking, elongated, sceptered tourmalines in the late 80s into the early 1990s, and has not really come out with much in the way of specimens since. They do, as you see, have a unique style of sceptering and color palette. This 7.3 cm crystal is a good example. The saturated color varies from pink at the base to a deep green to a dark green with a hint of blue in the termination. The crystal is gemmy throughout, and highly lustrous. An aesthetic scepter from these finds, this was previously in the renowned collection of Dr. Stephen Smale, who purchased most of the pocket when he was down there at the time for mathematics research (and buying tourmalines for bringing back to the USA for trade and sale, later). An attractive and full specimen with unusually robust width, not as skinny and sticklike as many. A classic “Barra scepter”, this is an immediately obvious and recognizable style of tourmaline from 1980s and early 1990s finds at this famous gem-producing tourmaline mine in Brazil. This is a piece purchased in Brazil at the time they came out, and long held in the extensive Brazilian gem suite of Dr. Steve Smale of Berkeley (who is in his 90s now, and can still remember the fun of snagging these!). He has been letting us exchange them and sell them now since the mid-2000s, slowly bringing the stash to market. That stash is now done - his extras are all sold (as we sold this for him, some years ago). This kind of quality, without repair and restoration, is simply not on the market anywhere. Valued highly, although it came back to us in a very good deal and we are trying to amortise and price the tourmalines in this lot very fairly. 27 grams.