Brazilianite

Unknown Owner

Help improve this recordNo owner is registered for this specimen yet. If it's yours or you know more about it, you can add the owner, provenance, publications and other details.

Beautiful doubly-terminated tabular crystal of GEMMY brazilianite from the type find! And, it was obtained from Fred Pough who was largely responsible for the published description of the species and its nomenclature a few years later. The color is a lovely yellow, and the luster varies from pretty good on the sides to superbly lustrous and clear on the terminations and frontal faces. This is a very nice, and quite uncommonly fine, miniature. The contacted and etched back with minor muscovite attached actually adds sparkle to the crystal when lit. They were brought out by dealer Martin Ehrmann in the 1940s and remain to this day the standard by which contemporary brazilianites are held up to. This find is recounted in interesting detail in the excellent book by Dr. Peter Bancroft Gem and Crystal Treasures on pages 201-205. Cal Graeber obtained this piece in a laborious trade along with a small lot of others Fred conveniently found in his garage after all these years, around 1999 if I recall. I bought the lot and sold them at that time. As most folks who have dealt with Dr. Pough know, he rarely has any labels for his material (and those are usually scribbles on scraps of paper!) but I can vouch that it did come from his collection for what it is worth. BTW it is BETTER (more gemmy) in person!