Tourmaline With Lepidolite and Cleavelandite

Unknown Owner

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This is a classic oldstyle Himalaya Mine crystal with a color that is more red-purple than pink-red as is more typical for the mine. It was, they think, mined in the Ralph Potter era (before the mid-1960s) prior to the ownership of Pala Intl. After mining, it went into the Perkin Sams collection in Midland, Texas, which later was donated to the Houston Museum of Natural History (and then exchanged back to the current Himalaya Mine owner Pala Properties in later years). The piece is fat and massive, at 178 grams. It has INTENSE color and practically glows when even minimally backlit. Again, in contrast to more modern pieces which tend to pink, this is a deeply robust hue with a very saturated coloration. It is complete all around, and the matrix associations of white cleavelandite and purple lepidolite really highlight the color and accentuate the piece. ex Pala Intl company collection