Tourmaline with Cleavelandite (doubly-terminated) - image 1

Tourmaline with Cleavelandite (doubly-terminated) - image 2

Tourmaline with Cleavelandite (doubly-terminated) - image 4

Tourmaline with Cleavelandite (doubly-terminated) - image 5

Tourmaline with Cleavelandite (doubly-terminated)

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.

From a productive old mine in San Diego, Himalaya tourmalines were famous the world over since the late 1800s. Over the decades, crystals of a variety of different colors and styles and quality were found. Pure pink-red crystals like this, a true rubellite tourmaline from the mine, were a thing of rarity! Such a pink crystal from here is much much more rare than if from Brazil. This crystal has not only color, but a rich saturation to it (note that this color changes depending on lighting: sunlight, overhead fluorescents, LED as shown). They tend to be more sparkling and pink in LED lights but more deep in color saturation in room light or sunlight. In addition to the quality of seeing a large and fully pink-red crystal, we also have matrix association here. And as a final bonus, the crystal is doubly terminated! The whole thing is a floater, complete all around, and with the cleavelandite wreathing the base as we stand it. It stands on its own, actually, but also comes with a custom lucite base. Lastly, if you know material from this location, you know and expect them to be repaired due to the extremely violent and old nature of the deposit when it formed. However, this piece has no repairs at all; and only 2 very trivial old "gap fills," what the miners did to fill in a small but natural crystal crack with epoxy, here or there. It is in remarkable condition, has remarkable color and display appeal, and stands upright. Hard to beat in this size class ! Lastly, it has provenance. I bought this off Peter Bancroft's desk in the 1990s from the last remnant of his old collection, when he must have been nearly 80. I sold it to Marty Zinn at the time, and it went back to market in 2003 when his collection was sold. Where it has been since, I have no idea...but I bought it when it turned up again!