Elbaite, Quartz

Unknown Owner

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This is one of only several dozen large blue-caps to come out of the infamous find by Bill Larson in 1972, which put the Tourmaline Queen back on the map and incidentally jumpstarted modern specimen mining as well. I confirmed the origin of the piece with him to be sure it really was one of the famous few. Most major pieces went into musuems, or into the collections of prominent buyers at the time. This piece was one that I found in a small private investment collection assembled in the 1970s, unprepped since the day it was found and attached to a massive piece of quartz which Sandor Fuss was able to brilliantly trim off for me without losing the crystal in the process. The tourmaline itself measures 9 x 5 x 4 cm in size.