Another collection favorite- a super rare old time specimen of tourmaline and quartz, attributed to the Sapo Mine. This one came from the collection of Guido Steger. He visited Brazil around 60 times in pursuit of fine specimens, starting in the 1960s and finishing his travels around 2009.

What makes this one special? The colors! Aside from being a fine matrix specimen with good quality and aesthetic balance, the piece exhibits a combination of rare, vibrant colors: hot pink, bright blue, and white. A really unique “watermelon” zone can be observed down the c-axis. For this reason, many of the crystals from this find were cut into slices and few matrix specimens were preserved. I’ve seen one other specimen that is a contender for “best piece from the pocket” but it is locked up in an elite collection. There could be others hiding out there, but it came from a time when specimen preservation wasn’t really a consideration.

I have seen a few matrix “stumps” that would have been incredible specimens, but the crystals were not kept with their respective matrix pieces. It hurts to think about! Imagine if an amazing dinosaur skeleton was discovered, but all the pieces were scattered to the market and polished into beads. The significance of the discovery would be lost forever. Until recently, this analogy has been the norm for mineral specimens. Rising values and appreciation for minerals is changing the tide, but the majority of specimens discovered in the past have been destroyed.

Guido’s adventures are chronicled in the following issues of The Mineralogical Record.

Volume 41 no. 5, 2010

Volume 40 no. 1, 2009

Volume 36 no. 3, 2006

Volume 36 no. 6, 2005

I strongly recommend finding copies of these issues if you can. Steger’s chronicles offer excellent perspective on the market for specimens over time.