Elbaite with Lepidolite

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This classic, pale pink and pale lime-green zoned gemmy doubly-terminated Elbaite crystal is from Paprok in Nuristan Province, Afghanistan. It is quite a long individual prismatic crystal for the pegmatites at Paprok, reaching 11.2 cm in length. Straddling a thin plate of pale mauve-grey Lepidolite, the long narrow Elbaite crystal has a white, frosted, flat pinacoid termination at its base and a classic tourmaline-style three-sided pyramidal tip. Pale bubble-gum pink for most of its length, its upper third becomes much gemmier, with a short pale lime-green zone transitioning back into pink with a slightly darker strawberry pink/red tip. Still with some evidence of inclusions, but with better transparency, the upper part of the crystal is much gemmier but with tiny crazed dots upon its surface from where small crystals of any unknown mineral were once present. It has a repair at its lower end, where three short sections of the crystal have been reattached, but this is really only visible under UV light. At its upper end, its pyramidal termination is complete, but on one side a small fractured surface marks where a perfectly parallel crystal extended upwards but has been lost at some point. This is an impressively large individual gem Elbaite crystal from the famous Paprok pegmatites with excellent classic colour tones.