Tourmaline with Cleavelandite

Unknown Owner

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This is a significant Himalaya Mine combination specimen from the personal collection of the Himalaya Mine owner William "Bill" Larson , a friend and mentor, and which was certainly over time the largest San Diego County collection built in modern history (parts of which have been sold over the years). This is, first, beautiful. Secondly, it is a rare style. And, significantly for the location, it has no repairs! Few "matrix" Himalaya pieces like this have been recovered with such nice placement of gem rubellites in the sparkling white matrix, a singularly rare style compared to all the mining done there over the span of 120 years from the 1890s to now. Out of all the pockets found, many look the same but this was, and will always remain, special. At least twenty pink Tourmaline crystals rise out of dense clusters of sparkling white Cleavelandite crystals that provide a contrasting backdrop. The Tourmaline crystals are all gem pink, with some showing a hint of green buried within their cores. The crystals vary in length from 1 to 5 cm and are up to 9 mm across. Tourmalines facing forward are all beautifully terminated in terms of display and how it looks on a shelf, however, most within the cluster are not terminated and this is visible on close inspection; either because of natural growth or breaks in pocket we cannot say. The surrounding Cleavelandite crystals that jacket the pink beauties are in excellent condition, leading us all to believe that this is just how it formed, and the breaks are old breaks in situ as the crystals grew out from the blades of matrix, not from later pocket collapse or mining (as that would also have damaged the cleavelandite blades). Small clusters of tiny Lepidolite crystals are present in places. This colorful combination piece is a rare thing from the Himalaya mine and is very eye catching. This piece comes with a custom labeled acrylic base and an exhibition label from Larson, from several displays it has been in over the years. He personally collected this specimen in the 1980s.