Tourmaline

Unknown Owner

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This piece was probably mined around 1900, and is the kind of material once sent to the Empress dowager of China when San Diego was a gem export center for the US, pre-WWI, and the Chinese carving market drove gem mining efforts. Few documented, bona fide King Mine specimens can be said to be in private hands today. Moreover, this is simply a really unusual and interesting cluster of bright pink tourmaline with blue pyramidal terminations atop, and an odd volcano caldera-like ingrowth that lends depth and dimensionality to an otherwise typical termination. There is some slight wear, but its not visually detracting, around the rim. This specimen was exchanged by Bill out of the Smithsonian with Paul Desautels as curator, in a large exchange in the late 1970s. Bill has owned it ever since in this collection, and regarded it as a very uniquely styled specimen with distinct character. Weight is 255 grams.