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August, 2002 - More New Minerals This time it's another variety pack - some very nice Alpine material, some very nice gem pegmatite specimens, and a few things that don't fit in either of those categories, but they're cool so I bought them! Enjoy...
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Sphene on Smoky Quartz A very large, lustrous, doubly-terminated smoky quartz crystal on a base of green schist, studded with dozens of dark brown titanites, some of which are twins. The quartz is full of veils and inclusions, and is very transparent. The titanites are scattered around the specimen and concentrated on the base. And the schist base gives the whole thing a "ship in a bottle" look. Very nice, big specimen from a sporadic, classic locality.
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Quartz with Sphene A beautiful pair of clear to lightly smoky quartz crystals at nearly right angles to each other, emerging from a base of calcite rhombs, and sprinkled with lustrous brown titanites. The larger quartz crystal has a multiple termination that is absolutely unique and fascinating. Another classic!
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Tourmaline with Goshenite and Quartz A slightly rough, deep green tourmaline flanked by two doubly-terminated quarts crystals, and topped by a very sharp, transparent goshenite crystal. Both terminations of the goshenite are complex and very attractive. The crystal has an extremely faint blue tint from one angle, but the coloring is so slight that I'm quite comfortable calling it goshenite. You could call it aquamarine if you wanted to, but I wouldn't! |
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Tourmaline with Goshenite (Aquamarine?) and Quartz Another nice, deep green elbaite covered on one side with lepidolite and quartz crystals, and with a neat little doubly-terminated beryl crystal near the base. This beryl also has complex terminations, and a faint blue color. I'm not quite as comfortable calling this one goshenite, but it's darn close!
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Goshenite with Tourmaline and Quartz This one is definitely goshenite! Not a hint of color in this beryl. Lovely termination, and a matrix of tourmaline, quartz and feldspar. Nice little specimen!
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Goshenite with Tourmaline and Mica Again, no color here to cloud the diagnosis. Super clear, super sharp and super lustrous. This is a killer little goshenite. It's also doubly-terminated, although the bottom is embedded in the matrix.
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Fluorite on Smoky Quartz This is a wonderful specimen! It's a blob of massively etched smoky quartz topped by a few clusters of etched transparent light reddish-pink fluorites. Now, I'm going to tell you what I think happened, and you can tell me I'm full of it... The main fluorites show, I think, that the original crystals were octahedrons, but much of them has been etched away. The corners, however, are sharp and lustrous, but the crystal faces seem to be oriented opposite those of the larger, original crystals. So it seems to me that re-growth of the fluorite happened after the original crystals were etched, and only happened on the corners of the original crystals. Okay, so I spend too much time looking at rocks. But I'd love it if someone with more geological expertise than me would look at this one and tell me what they think... Anyway, it's a cool specimen!
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Fluorite Beautiful, frosty, deep pink fluorite octahedrons stick out all over the matrix on this excellent little specimen. It's a really nifty little piece that I did not do a good job photographing. As Lennon would say, "give piece a chance..." Oh. I'm sorry. I even gave myself a stomach ache with that one. I'm really sorry.
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Anatse with Quartz and Calcite Ooowee! I've been wanting to offer some nice anatase specimens for a long time, and I finally found a couple! This one features a big, lustrous, striated gem of an anatase, with more, smaller anatases, on a lovely matrix of quartz and calcite. There's a small contact spot on the main crystal, but it doesn't bother me, and it keeps the price from being stupid. A very, very nice anatase matrix piece.
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Anatse with Quartz and Calcite Another knockout anatase on matrix. This one has two major crystals, and a couple of smaller ones, on a similar quartz and calcite matrix. The anatase crystals are mirror-lustorus on this specimen. Again, a very nice matrix anatase. You don't see matrix anatase specimens very often (or at least I don't. If you do, please tell me where!).
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Quartz Gwindel One very big, doubly-terminated light smoky quartz crystal standing guard in front of a big, long, beautiful gwindel with an outrageous corkscrew twist. The color here is probably lighter than you're seeing in the photos - it's really very close to that classic Alpine smoky color. There is some internal fracturing in the gwindel (probably ice-inflicted), but not a spot of damage anywhere else on the specimen.
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Quartz This is a specimen I should have shot from a few more orientations. It's a beautiful, glass-clear, faintly smoky cluster of very interesting quartz. The main crystal is a big tabular, doubly-terminated dude that was probably on the bottom of the pocket (if you turned the left photo 90 degrees to the left, that's how it came out - and it looks good displayed that way). Lying across the main crystal are a bunch of long, thin quartz prisms. Really a killer Russian quartz that's better in person than the photos look.
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Quartz Gwindel Another sick and twisted specimen. This big Russian gwindel features 3 main crystals with fabulous growth patterns, very nice terminations, and a great twist. The specimen is light-smoky, water-clear, and very nice. There are a couple of small bruises, and a large contact on the back, but it displays beautifully and has that always-desirable quality of scarcity. Do-Do gwindels just don't find their way to the U.S. very often.
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Adularia Just about the gemmiest little adularia I've seen. This nifty little twin is clear, if somewhat crazed inside. A very aesthetic crystal on a well-proportioned bit of matrix - this is a superb adularia thumbnail.
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Adularia A nice little stack of adularias next to some doubly-terminated quartz crystals. These adularias are almost "moonstones" - they exhibit that eerie-chatoyant-light-reflecting thing, but only white light. Very cool toenail specimen.
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Adularia (Baveno twin) with Chlorite This is one big, bad, manly Baveno twin adularia. The sheer size is impressive enough, but the list of stuff about this one doesn't stop there. The twinning line is very pronounced and splits one side of the crystal right down the middle. The chlorite coverage is complete, and there aren't a bunch of dings and smudges of white where it's been knocked off, like so many big, coated feldspars. And the contact on the bottom, where this king was pried loose from his throne in the pocket, is very small - almost insignificant - and invisible when the crystal is displayed upright. Quite simply an amazingly large, well-preserved Alpine feldspar.
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Adularia (Baveno twin) with Chlorite If the last specimen was the king, this one was probably the queen and her attendants. It's another big (but not AS big) Baveno twin, almost completely covered with chlorite, and surrounded by lots of smaller, nearly gemmy adularias, some with chlorite caps. The twin line is distinct here as well - the chlorite is oriented in opposite directions on the opposing sides, causing the crystal to reflect light differently, depending upon which plane you're facing. A wonderful Alpine matrix adularia!
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Fluorite on Smoky Quartz A "plate" made up of several large, nicely terminated, light smoky quartz crystals, covered on the back by dozens and dozens of beautiful, bright pink to clear fluorite octahedrons up to .7cm. Very unusual and attractive.
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Adularia (Baveno twin) A very nice, translucent (almost gemmy in a few areas), sharply terminated adularia twin. The line is razor-sharp, and the termination faces are nicely striated. The crystal was broken off the matrix on the back, but displays beautifully from the front.
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Fluorite with Smoky Quartz and Adularia One relatively large (1.5+ cm) pink octahedron perched above a number of smaller fluorites, all sitting at the top of a beautiful, coarse matrix of adularia, smoky quartz and grainy feldspar. Excellent crystallization and just a little chlorite accent here and there.
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Bi-color Fluorite with Smoky Quartz This is another amazing fluorite specimen. The jumble of fluorite octahedrons on top of the smoky quartz and granite matrix appear to have originally been large, pink crystals. Some of these have etchted away, and there is secondary growth, on the corners of the original crystals, of clear and purple new fluorite octahedrons. Very, very unusual to find purple fluorite from this locality, and it looks great!
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Red Fluorite with Smoky Quartz A chunk of alpine granite, with one surface completely covered with tiny smoky quartz crystals. At the top of the specimen are 4 gemmy, red fluorites, to about 1 cm. Nice contrast and a very interesting specimen.
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Quartz Gwindel with Chlorite A big, beautiful, water-clear, very lightly smoky Alpine gwindel. This one pretty much speaks for itself. It's contacted on the bottom and side where it was attached to matrix, but is otherwise barely nicked. There is a very, very faint coating of chlorite on alternating crystal faces. A classic Swiss specimen.
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Quartz with Chlorite Phantoms Big, blocky, well-terminated clear to white quarts with fabulous chlorite phantoms and inclusions. The phantoms are every bit as good as some of the ubiquitous South American material that so often finds its way into jewelry shops, but these are BIG, and they're CLASSIC ALPINE! With yellowish calcite at the base.
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Smoky Quartz with Adularia One of those rarities - a big, fat, wonderfully clear, medium-smoky quartz cluster with absolutely no damage. I mean, I can't find anything on this big main crystal that I would call even the slightest ding! There's a tiny, maybe 1/2 mm notch at the very tip that's darn near invisible and absolutely insignificant. A stunning Alpine quartz that just spits fire under lights!
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Manganotantalite Shifting gears, here's a great little reddish-brown manganotantalite on mica. The crystal is sharp all around, with a very nice termination, good lustre, and great color. Not many of these reach this size and still keep that unique color (not to mention definition and crystal form). A beauty.
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Morganite, Manganotantalite & Lepidolite on Albite Okay, let me just say right now, there is a ding on the top of this morganite. That said, this specimen is a killer in so many ways - the morganite is completely clear and gemmy, and has great color. It has complex terminations all around its tabby little self. It has a gemmy, 2x2mm manganotantalite tab sticking out of one side. It is nestled in pink to peach colored lepidolite and bluish albite. It smokes. Please, though, don't order this specimen if you're hoping it will arrive without the ding. In fact, it has two dings. But I would ask $3000 in a heartbeat if it didn't, and some of the Big Guys would ask three times that. It's just a great, great, slightly injured morganite!
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Bastnaesite (Ce) Now, for something completely different... it's bastnaesite, in gargantuan proportions unheard of before this summer! This is a semi-gemmy, beautifully terminated cluster of bastnaesite crystals, the first of the two best crystals from an amazing new find of bastnaesites that have blown away the literature for the species. I promise, these are the only two I have, and this one is tops. Amazing, and there is no indication this material is going to come flooding out. All signs indicate there was just one pocket of these.
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Bastnaesite (Ce) The second-best of these amazing, huge new bastnaesites. This crystal is just a little bit smaller, and a little bit more rounded on the edges, than the first one. Still, a very significant and beautiful crystal.
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Tourmaline A very cute little green tourmaline cluster, with a really nice termination on the main crystal. Afghan tourmaline is becoming really scarce, and I like these little dudes anyway! Excellent toenail specimen.
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Green Beryl on Feldspar This is the one-and-only specimen to come from an aquamarine pocket in Pech. The color is distinctly green - almost to the point of being heliodor-gold, but definitley green, and unlike any beryl I've ever seen from Afghanistan. Possibly a one of a kind specimen.
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Sapphire on Calcite This is just an amazingly aesthetic little specimen. A complex rhomb of translucent, blue-grey calcite wraps, on one corner, around a lovely little deep pink, striated, hexagonal, doubly-terminated sapphire. The sapphire is somewhat flattened, and has a few rough spots, but is completely intact and terminated all around. An extremely aesthetic specimen.
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Sapphire Now, speaking of extremely aesthetic sapphires... this is one of the best affordable Burmese sapphire specimens I've seen. It's a cluster of flat, tabular crystals, all translucent to transparent, in varying shades of deep, bright pink to deep orange. There is a bit of matrix to keep the specimen interesting, but the real focus is those wonderful crystals and the almost unreal bright color. Truly an exceptional Burmese sapphire.
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Bi-color Tourmaline on Quartz with Feldspar As I've been saying, Afghan tourmalines are getting pretty rare on the market, and here's another keeper. The tourmaline rides up the middle of a split-terminated quartz crystal, and is just about evenly split itself between light pink and light green. The complex, multiple termination of the crystal is very nice, very gemmy, and perfectly intact.
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Bi-color Tourmaline on Quartz with Feldspar the last piece I have from this pocket, this one is a cute little toenail, on a shard of quartz, with a killer, complex termination. An excellent Afghan "almost honest" thumbnail.
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Morganite with Tourmaline Here's a thumbnail for a great thumbnail collection! This little morganite has a lot more going for it than the photos show - some very nice crystal faces, aesthetic arrangement on the little bit of matrix, and a couple of tiny tourmalines on the "back." Great color, and very unusual faces on this little dude!
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Pyrrhotite on Quartz I rarely buy these specimens - there have been so many of them on the market - and I have found most of them to be ugly and/or damaged. This one is exceptional. The very lustrous and well-formed pyrrhotite lies on top of a small plate of quartz needles in a very aesthetic arrangement. Very few specimens of this material look as good as this one!
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Pyrrhotite & Galena (spinel twin) on Quartz Another unusual pyrrhotite, with some really great bonus material! The pyrrhotite is super-lustrous and well-formed in hexagonal books. There is a scattering of quartz needles for matrix, and there's a Dal'negorsk classic thrown in - a beautiful spinel twin galena cluster. I couldn't decide which to put first in the name - galena or pyrrotite. I guess you can decide and change it if you'd like!
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Sphene and Calcite on pericline twin Albite A wonderful Pakistani Alpine specimen! The base of the specimen is surrounded by bright green sphenes, and the main part of the piece is all periclines, with one big crystal rising up to take a bow. The big calcite at the end is about half-covered with chlorite, completing the "Alpine" nature of the specimen. Just beautiful!
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Fluorite on Microcline Mint green, gemmy fluorites on super-sharp, white, perfect microcline crystals. A beautiful plate.
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Smoky Quartz with Schorl & Feldspar One of the most unusual quartz specimens I've had! Looks like "the corner pocket." This specimen is a bit of coarse Himalayan granite with a spray of nice, clear, slightly smoky quartz. What makes this one really interesting, though, is the multitude of thin schorl needles protuding through and out of the quartz. It looks like a little black-and-clear fireworks display.
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