Beryl var. Aquamarine

This is a well-known single aquamarine gem crystal from the Wally Mann Collection (featured in Minerals of Texas Collectors book, Mineralogical Record November of 2020, page 6), which he treasured so much because, after 50 years of collecting, it was different than others in his previous collections. At 174 grams this is a very stout and impactful single gem aquamarine. It can show vertically or simply on its side, with the window-like large top face coming out at you. That termination is pristine, sharp, like polished glass. We know that it is natural because I imported it in around 2012-13, and Wally was in the office at the time the parcel came; so he volunteered to unpack it! He grabbed it immediately and it never hit the market or the lab for cleaning. It literally just came out looking this good. I almost did not buy it because the color was nontraditional but my source in Peshawar said, holding it, that I needed to take it because it was so gorgeous in his hand in a way that his video could not describe. Indeed, he was right - it is like blue glass and I was so happy he pushed me a bit. It is not like all the others from Pakistan ...rather, it has a "seafoam " color that is a blue-green hue associated with old antique aquamarines from Brazil, and not often seen in material from any other locality. Pakistani aquamarines tend to be a more pure blue, but this is definitely showing the slightest of green tones, which makes it stand out in a crowd as a different shade of blue from what the eye is used to. It is simply gorgeous. The photos show the color best, perhaps, as it is hard to capture. It comes with a custom lucite base.