Tourmaline on Smoky Quartz

Unknown Owner

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This is a rare matrix bubblegum-colored tourmaline, perched dramatically at one end of a shard of lustrous smoky quartz. The tourmaline has JUICY color, a rich pink-red hue classic for this region. It has a nearly perfect termination with only minute edge wear and a glassy, unusually fine luster to the top that lets you look right down into the depths of the crystal. The crystal itself is about 10 x 6 x 5 cm in size, though it tapers slightly towards the base. It is repaired, from a natural break in situ, at a point just below the junction to the attached smoky quartz and so the seam is really quite unseen from the front of the specimen. It is a good, clean repair job with minor restoration at the natural break, and without a jarring visual effect when displayed, so I consider it acceptable at a price. A specimen like this would normally be in the 6-figure range if perfect and so, admittedly, this is not quite perfect BUT the price is adjusted accordingly - at a good tradeoff to the collector who can now get a matrix bubblegum pink, that doesn't cost the fortune it looks like it should. This specimen was obtained from a direct source in-country, via email as it came out of the mine, by collector Gene Meieran (from whom I obtained it, in turn). In person, the tourmaline color and photography is most accurate in the closeup (lower-right) photo. The luster is best shown in the first photo. When we use good lighting on the tourmaline, the smoky quartz appears more black than it actually is, in person (it is more a normal dark gray color, than black as it appears). 1.2 kilos