Tourmaline

Unknown Owner

Help improve this recordNo owner is registered for this specimen yet. If it's yours or you know more about it, you can add the owner, provenance, publications and other details.

Golconda tourmalines were one of the classic styles of Brazilian material famous in the heyday of the gem district discoveries here in the 1950s and 1960s. This mine produced such crystals as this, with this distinct style, in the early 1960s only and it was then nonproductive by 1965, already (see Bancroft's book, Gem & Crystal Treasures, for a fairly colorful account of the mining there). Today, a "Golconda" simply never comes to market. They are immediately recognizable and known by this name anywhere amongst collectors, but few ever see one outside of the few museums which hold them. This fine, balanced miniature as great color and aesthetics, and is in fact the only smaller example I have seen around (others I have seen in a few private collections were small cabinet sized, and the Royal Ontario Museum has a huge piece). It is a superb miniature in its own right, but the history and style make it much more than just a pretty cluster. Complete all around, as well. ex Jim White collection