Amethyst - image 1
Amethyst - image 2

Amethyst

Unknown Owner
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This is a simply killer Veracruz Amethyst miniature with both exceptional color & composition AND significant provenance to the greatest collection of Mexican minerals assembled before modern years! Two gorgeous and balanced Amethyst crystals are arranged in a V and look like a Japanese Law twin but are not (we checked! This was a famous piece long thought to be a twin, but the angle is a few degrees off the requirement, sadly). These two crystals are incredibly glassy AND transparent, especially the upper two-thirds that constitute the purple ends. The crystals grade to a pale purple with milky inclusions at their bases. A sidecar crystal is in subparallel growth with the one on the left side and there are two purple-tipped smaller Amethysts at the base of the two in dramatic orientation, a few small ones to the right and on the back and then one tiny point poking out between the two large Amethyst crystals for added effect! A stunning competition-miniature Amethyst that was in the Miguel Romero collection and the University of Arizona collection. Display Labels from both collections accompany the piece. I purchased the Romero collection back before 2010, sold this, and got it back again recently. It is a small example of a common material, to be sure - but that makes it all the more powerful for how it stands out from the rest. Better in person, as you can tell from the verbiage here!

Product details

SpeciesAmethyst
SizeSmall Cabinet
Dimensions5.7 x 4.5 x 3.4 cm
Added on10/23/2024
LocalityMexico, Veracruz

Known provenance

DateCollectorAcquisition price
08/2024Unknown OwnerNot disclosed
The ArkenstoneNot disclosed

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Amethyst
Mineral guide
Learn about Amethyst
violet quartz prized for vivid color and crystal forms; affordable Brazilian geodes and razor-sharp Georgia crystals, with collecting localities.
Amethyst
Regional guide
Amethyst from Veracruz, Mexico
Veracruz amethyst is one of the few amethysts that serious collectors can often recognize at arm’s length. Its appeal is not based on the massive, dark geode architecture of Brazil or Uruguay, nor on the saturated, stout crystal groups of Guerrero. The classic Veracruz look is airy: slender, glassy quartz prisms, lilac to violet, often with the strongest purple gathered in the terminations, rising singly or in bouquets from a gray volcanic matrix dusted with smaller quartz and, in the best combinations, green epidote.