A very sculptural piece with tan, lustrous olmiite that in crystallography is somewhere between "balls" and "wheatsheaves," making for a very cute stack of crystals one atop the other. Joe Budd Photos, shot in halogen light...they are more red-colored in standard room fluorescent lighting.

A bright and sparkling specimen with unusually lustrous clusters of tan and offwhite-colored olmiite, spaced out in discrete balls upon a calcite matrix. The colors make for a stark contrast to one another, and the tan balls are incredibly lustrous. Illustrated in the "Connoisseurs Choice" article on Olmiite, in the March-April issue of ROCKS & MINERALS magazine. Joe Budd Photos, shot in halogen light...they are more red-colored in standard room fluorescent lighting.

A sculptural cluster of grapelike balls of peach-pink olmiite to 1 cm. Superb aesthetics and unusually fine luster. Joe Budd Photos, shot in halogen light...they are more red-colored in standard room fluorescent lighting.

This is an intense purple-pink tanzanite crystal, which is a very rare and seldom seen natural color for tanzanite. The crystal is razor sharp and lustrous, and weights 38.9 carats. It is complete all around save for a small divot out of the back of the otherwise razorsharp termination (and hence is priced about half what it would, otherwise, but nevertheless is VERY impressive on display, and from front or sides). Joe Budd Photos.

A very rare example of large amethyst crystals from CALIFORNIA, of all places. This old deposit has been worked intermittently over the years, although I was given to understand this is an older specimen and has been in a collection for at least 2 decades. It is complete all around, and a fairly surprising item from California. Joe Budd Photos.

Once, in the early 1990s, these were abundant on the market due to collectors pursuing them by license. However, now collecting is severely restricted in this spillway cut, and in any case few specimens of this size and perfection were ever recovered (i recall most are in the 2-3 inch range). Collectors had to dig several meters down in the mud, where these had formed somehow as floaters in a specific layer. This is a HUGE cluster, for the locale, with gorgeous, gemmy, transparent twinned crystals of gypsum sticking out like towers from the smaller untwinned crystals making up the ball beneath. It is complete and perfect all around, with no damage despite the natural softness of gypsum. Such specimens were literally found in a fraction of a percentile of the time. Joe Budd Photos.

A remarkable single, floater crystal of HUGE size. This piece is complete all around, totallypristine, and has a remarkable, interesting patina to it. It is the largest fine Russian copper crystal I know of, personally; and moreover, is a major copper crysatl on a worldwide scale as well. It is similar, in fact, only to the famous few Arizona copper twins found in the 1970s and now valued at their weight in platinum. Joe Budd Photos.

A classic from this ancient topaz mine, heliodor is occasionally found in gem crystal cavities ("pods") as well. It is actually difficult to find smaller, good heliodor of this style from the locality. Most are large and altered by solution processes in the pocket into rounded lumps at the ends - this process probably having eliminated most of the smaller crystals over time. This piece is approximately 30 grams. It has one of the sharpest terminations i have ever seen of the material! The color is a pleasing yellow golden color with not too much green, as some are. Lustre and reflections are brilliant , like glass. Joe Budd Photos.

A truly exceptional, totally transparent gem crystal of this incredibly rare species. Crystals of this size are probably limited to sevral dozens at a guess, and few are of such quality and sharpness (most being rather opaque). This is a stunning, rare treasure from the pegmatites of Afghanistan. Joe Budd Photos.

A truly elegant specimen that is , for its size range, perhaps my favorite Himmelsfurst silver I have seen. This turned up in an old European collection and came with a label dated clearly to 1844. It is of the most classic, robust style of the older pieces, as opposed to the specimens which came out of modern finds in the late 80s and into the 90s which have more frilly, bendable tips. From the collection of a well-known collector who has owned it for decades (by exchange directly to me). The specimen is pristine and complete all around, and looks "alive" for lack of a better term. It actually looks as if it is inmotion, curving elegantly no matter how you look at it. Joe Budd Photos.