A stunning, unusually elongated and vertical tanzanite crystal showing vivid gemminess , especially when stood up showing the purple side forward. For whatever reasons, I cannot explain, nearly all tanzanite crystals present at their best with the blue face forward, and the purple axis turned 90 degrees from display. It is just the way of things. But this piece really shows both the best drama and the best gemminess, with the purple facing the viewer. The blue color is equally intense, though, and no slouch on its own. When a light is shined up along the c-axis, bottom to top, the piece glows with a brilliant red-magenta color that is indicative of its natural coloration without treatment (treatment for the gem trade disrupts the third, red color from showing). What is amazing is that, despite the height, the light really transmits through nicely along the long c-axis and makes the whole piece glow, instead of just the tip. The crystal is pristine and complete all around, although it has a "slip contact" where one surface is rough in a few places, only on the very right hand edge, due to contact where it grew against another crystal. The piece is obviously very 3-dimensional as you can see, and reminds me of Transco tower in Houston. So overall this is a stunningly intense, deep blue crystal that is natural and unheated. The piece shows vivid blue, red, and purple colors along its three axes. At just over 100 grams mass, there is a sizeable amount of high-grade cutting rough here, where you could go right up the gemmy core of the piece and cut intense purple-oriented stones including two of substantial size. As I say elsewhere here, I am a big believer in hoarding fine tanzanites, as the source just cannot last forever, and worldwide demand for the gemstone drives the miners to cut good crystals for the easy and quick monetary yield, as opposed to save them. This particular crystal was found in the early 2000s and has been in a private collection since that time. Comes with a custom lucite base for display. Joe Budd photos

A remarkable large specimen of nephrite jade. I have seen few specimen-quality pieces in this size range from the famous California localities. Though, most of what I have seen has been from "Jade Cove", this came from an old collection and had a taped label stating the locality given (San Benito County). It came from an old California collection that was picked up by dealer Don Olson recently. This large piece of solid nephrite is 3.7 pounds. . Joe Budd photos (excepting the hand shot)

This is an extremely robust, 3-dimensional, fat twin of the type collected in the early to mid-1900s at this important locale. The piece is one of the larger fine examples we have seen by far, and masses at 118 grams. Although the mineral present is rutile, it has replaced (pseudomorphed after) an exceptionally sharp and large brookite crystal. Unusually, sixling twinning is not present and this is a (more rare in this size) untwinned crystal for the locale. . Joe Budd photos

This specimen comes from a unique pocket hit in the late 1990s, featuring small hexagonal APATITES perched on the rhodochrosite, with a bonus of little jewel-like cubic purple fluorites for accent. The three larger crystals reach 2 cm across, and have very good cherry-red color, not the more commonly seen (today) pale, partially-ripe strawberry hue. This specimen has been in a private collection for some time, and was recently given to me for sale. I believe their asking price to be very fair, in light of recent prices I have seen on specimens remaining with the former miner, as they also are buying back specimens in the marketplace for resale now. Comes with custom lucite base. NOTE: I am selling this for a friend and i think he lowballed the price. this is, i feel, a pretty good deal...