Tourmaline Var. Indicolite

Unknown Owner

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This is a very important, historic, crystal with unusually good color and size. It is doubly-terminated, though repaired about the middle. The large, transparent indicolite zone atop is just very intense and richly colored, with barely a trace of green. At about the midpoint it grades to a dark forest green hue. The crystal is actually pristine and complete all around, except one repair. It has a small bit of attached matrix at the bottom termination. I left the original repair intact because it is firstly good enough; and this is a historic specimen where repairs go with the territory and so I think it does not hurt visually, though it could be done more seamlessly with modern techniques. Such tourmalines from the old Connecticut quarries are highly sought after today and only come up as old collections such as this one are dispersed. Click on the link above to see more information about John Albanese, courtesy of the Mineralogical Record Archives. An old Albanese label survives with the specimen, by the way.