Elbaite, Feldspar Group

Unknown Owner

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This unusual specimen features a tourmaline crystal perched on the side of unusually sharp feldspar crystals for this locality. The feldspar matrix itself is superb. But what is really fascinating is the extreme degree of "bending" of the tourmaline, showing the effect of a natural process that happened in situ, of breaking and re-healing during growth. This repeated process results in strange bent crystals of tourmaline, which are normally only small things from other localities but from the highly disrupted Himalaya pegmatites can reach good sizes such as you see here (just over 2 inches long). Ex. William Larson Collection (Larson operated the mine for 30 years and owns it still) .