Schorl

Unknown Owner

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This tourmaline surprised me. I expected it to be broken on both ends when I first saw the photo in a collection a few months ago, but it is actually doubly-terminated: a floater, complete all around. The top termination is a sharp, flat, lustrous termination as you would expect. The bottom termination is a strange nest of elongated, acicular tourmaline growing from the main body of the crystal and yet still joining to culminate in a termination. The twisting and bending of the crystal is the most severe that I have seen in a tourmaline specimen I can recall, and indicates tectonic forces and movement of the crystal within the pocket as it was forming. Normally, such dramatic bending would be accompanied by dramatic cracking and breaking. However, this thing is miraculously intact, with no repairs. It somehow survived the constant breaking and re-healing process that formed the curvature you see. Ex. Saller collection of Germany.