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of Pala International
These crystals are mostly from the company tourmaline case of the dealership responsible for bringing the Himalaya Mine to fame, Pala International-The Collector of Fallbrook, California. This collection was assembled starting in the late 1970s under the joint guidance of Bill Larson and Ed Swoboda initially. It began as an educational collection on the variety of a natural species (there were other cases, as well as tourmaline); and as an example to stimulate new collectors by showing off what a tourmaline suite could look like in a home showcase. It has, since the early 1980s , been housed in the showroom of The Collector, the iconic store in Fallbrook, California, founded by Bill Larson and Ed Swoboda following their discovery of the Tourmaline Queen bluecap pocket in 1972. They went on to mine the Himalaya Mine, which Bill Larson continued to mine until leasing it off in 2002. Some of the choicest crystals found in their mining, in the size range kept for this collection, still remained here to this day. STAY TUNED: PART II posting soon - 50 more specimens!
PTOURM-01 - Tourmaline - $ 2000 Santa Rosa Mine, Minas Gerais, Brazil small cabinet, 6.4 x 3.4 x 2.2 cm
A very elegant, unusually glassy and bright, gemmy cluster of crystals showing sculptural form. The cluster is complete all around save only a small contact on the back edge of the sidecar crystal to the left. That sidecar crystal goes in diagonally into the main cluster and helps hold the whole cluster together by its association, in fact. It is otherwise complete all around, and displays well from a number of angles. Old material. ex Pala Intl company collection
PTOURM-02 - Tourmaline - $ 7500 SOLD Himalaya Mine, Mesa Grande, San Diego County, California small cabinet, 8.3 x 4.2 x 3.1 cm
A stunning crystal for the Himalaya mine with INTENSE color. It has almost a purpley-maroon color saturation in fluorescent lighting (although these go paler in Halogen lighting). The crystal is complete all around and doubly-terminated, and masses 121 grams. This is a choice crystal, which Bill Larson mined in the 1980s from his own mine and kept in this collection ever since. The cleavelandite accents really give it a matrixy character, without fuzzing over its importance as a single gem crystal. It sits upright on the flat termination, or can be mounted in a base with the pointed termination down - either way, impactful on display. VERY translucent when backlit, this is a superior example of this particular style. ex Pala Intl company collection
PTOURM-03 - Tourmaline - $ 3200 SOLD Paprok, Nuristan, Afghanistan small cabinet, 7.0 x 6.8 x 3.9 cm
An elegant piece with a spray of crystals shooting straight up from matrix of cleavelandite and lepidolite, stark and bright pink against white contrast. The cluster is complete and pristine all around. The crystals have great lustre. AND, to cap it off, a shocking difference in style of the terminations even on adjacent crystals, makes the piece really stand out to the eye. It is good from either side, front or back. The terminations are perfect and undamaged, and for that matter the cluster itself is not repaired as you might expect such a freestanding piece to be. This kind of aesthetics is almost unheard of in specimens from here - you just do not see such things often. A choice piece, for its size range and style. ex Pala Intl company collection
PTOURM-04 - Tourmaline - $ 4200 Himalaya Mine, Mesa Grande, San Diego County, California small cabinet, 7.4 x 3.5 x 2.3 cm
Another stunning crystal for the Himalaya mine with INTENSE color. It has almost a purpley-maroon color saturation in fluorescent lighting (although these go paler in Halogen lighting). The crystal is complete all around and doubly-terminated, and masses 88 grams. This is a choice crystal, which Bill Larson mined in the 1980s from his own mine and kept in this collection ever since. The cleavelandite accents really give it a matrixy character. It can be displayed two ways: It sits upright on the flat termination, or can be mounted in a base with the pointed termination down - either way, impactful on display. from the same pocket as PTOURM-02. ex Pala Intl company collection
PTOURM-05 - Tourmaline - $ 2500 SOLD Sapo Mine, Minas Gerais, Brazil miniature, 3.0 x 2.9 x 1.6 cm ex. James and Dawn Minette
Sapo Mine bluecaps were one of the most stunning new finds of the late 1990s, and now are sought after and hard to get. When they came out, although there were many small crystals per se, there were not many fine thumbnails in the sense of a sophisticated taste wanting a "thumbnail sized exquisite piece" , but not just a broken-off single stump. THIS cluster is the best thumbnail i can recall seeing from the finds. It was in the collection of Jim and Dawn Minette, and then sold to thumbnail collector Jim Houran 2 years ago. It features a 2.5-cm-long doubly terminated crystal with intense color, just perched up on a natural stick in midair.
PTOURM-06 - Tourmaline - $ 2250 SOLD Pederneira Mine, Minas Gerais, Brazil small cabinet, 7.0 x 1.1 x 1.1 cm
A dramatic, SUPER GEMMY crystal of mostly facet rough grade tourmaline, from the famous Rocket Pocket here which came out around 2001-2002. The crystal has exquisite clarity and intense color. ex Pala Intl company collection
PTOURM-07 - Tourmaline - $ 1200 Mika pegmatite, Rangkul, Pamir Mts, Tajikistan miniature, 3.8 x 2.6 x 2.2 cm
A fat, interesting crystal from the remote Pamir mountains, with green top grading to a red core. ex Pala Intl company collection
PTOURM-09 - Tourmaline - $ 1450 Alto Ligonhe, Mozambique miniature, 4.4 x 1.7 x 1.4 cm ex. American Museum of Natural History
A rare, oldtime specimen of multicolored tourmaline from Alto Ligonhe, showing typical maroon coloration to the body and some subtle but complex striations down the long axis. Nice! Ex American Museum of Natural History. There is a large, clean and gem cutting-quality nodule in the bottom of this crystal. ex Pala Intl company collection
PTOURM-10 - Tourmaline - $ 750 Mt Mica, Paris, Oxford County, Maine miniature, 3.3 x 0.9 x 0.7 cm ex. Smithsonian Institution
A gorgeous, unusually bright tourmaline from turn of the 1900s finds here at this classic locale. Ex Smithsonian Institution, by exchange in the 1970s. ex Pala Intl company collection
PTOURM-11 - Tourmaline - $ 3000 Alto Ligonhe, Mozambique miniature, 5.3 x 2.0 x 1.7 cm ex. American Museum of Natural History
An oldtimer, extracted by exchange from the American Museum of Natural History in the 1980s, with a riveting and gemmy core of evergreen color, under a red cap. The unusual yellow patches on the termination are characteristic of this locale, and distinct from superficially similar tourmalines from the Cruzeiro mine in Brazil. I am told there is a fair amount of gem value herein. ex Pala Intl company collection
PTOURM-13 - Tourmaline - $ 6000 Pederneira Mine, Minas Gerais, Brazil cabinet, 11.1 x 1.7 x 1.4 cm
A dramatic, SUPER GEMMY crystal of mostly facet rough grade tourmaline, from the famous Rocket Pocket here which came out around 2001-2002. The crystal has exquisite clarity and intense color characteristic of the find. It is rather large and, remarkably, not repaired despite the size - one of the few not so repaired from this find. ex Pala Intl company collection
PTOURM-14 - Tourmaline - $ 4000 Himalaya Mine, Mesa Grande, San Diego County, California small cabinet, 8.0 x 2.8 x 2.4 cm
This is classic multicolored Himalaya mine style, from the late 1980s, and features a green flat termination and a pointed red termination. It is 116 grams, hefty and complete all around. A fine piece, collected in his own mine by Bill Larson and then in the company collection. ex Pala Intl company collection
PTOURM-15 - Tourmaline - $ 3200 SOLD Jos Plateau, Nigeria small cabinet, 7.0 x 1.1 x 1.0 cm
A totally gemmy, transparent crystal of extremely fine quality and color saturation from famous finds here in about 2001, most of which was cut. This piece was saved from a parcel of cutting rough at that time, and then went into the Pala Intl. Company collection.
PTOURM-16 - Tourmaline - $ 1500 Alto Ligonhe, Mozambique small cabinet, 8.1 x 1.7 x 1.2 cm ex. American Museum of Natural History
In assembling the Pala Intl. Company tourmaline collection, Bill larson loved the historic old classics, and often went after pieces from such localities as this when trading with museums. This one came out of a trade with the American Museum of Natural History, and features interesting dark and lighter green bands of color. Complete all around. ex Pala Intl. Company collection
PTOURM-17 - Tourmaline - $ 1250 Delicias Mine, Los Pocitos, Ensenada, Baja California Norte, Mexico thumbnail, 2.5 x 1.0 x 1.0 cm (largest of 3) ex. Josephine Scripps
This superb group of 3 totally gem, blue indicolite tourmalines is from very old material found occasionally in small artisan mining in this region. In perso, they really glow and have a hint of purple overtones. Specimen is from the collection of Josie Scripps, circa 1970s. ex Pala Intl. Company collection
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