Microcline var. Amazonite with Smoky Quartz

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As its name suggests, the Wushan Spessartine mine at Tongbei in Fujian Province, China is renowned for superb Spessartine garnet specimens. These are mined purely for their aesthetic qualities, rather than as an ore of manganese, and are not actually from one individual mine, but a series of small quarry-like excavations. Associated with the Spessartine is Smoky Quartz, Microcline feldspar and Fluorite. Occasionally, as demonstrated by this small cabinet specimen, the Microcline feldspar displays the distinctive pale turquoise-blue colour of the variety known as Amazonite. This piece is two-fold, representing a well-formed blocky Microcline var. Amazonite crystal displaying partially overgrowth of feldspar on one edge, with a very dark coloured terminated prismatic Smoky Quartz crystal attached to one side in parallel growth. This Quartz crystal displays prominent horizontal growth lines and is so dark and opaque as to almost be the variety Morion. There is very minor chipping to the edges of the Quartz crystal and an unusual natural growth distortion along one edge of the pyramidal termination faces, but this still presents very strongly as an Amazonite-Smoky Quartz combination not from Colorado.