|
San Diego Collection
This is the company collection of the well-known 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 and investment-style reference collection of local San Diego County minerals, housed in the showroom of The Collector, the iconic store 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 closing it in 2002. By the late 1970's, Bill Larson had bought out Ed's ownership in the store and business, retaining and growing over the years this collection to fill a large trophy case that remained in the store on exhibit over the years.
When I moved to San Diego in 1995, this was the first County collection I saw. Seeing the Larson collection was the pilgrimage for advanced collectors visiting the hotbed of Southern California as far back as the 70's though, and this collection was right there through it all. The goal was to show, in a mix of sizes and species (and quality levels), a broad array of the mineral species occurring in San Diego County with emphasis on historic locales. Particular emphasis was placed on obtaining locality pieces from small pegmatite workings and unusual finds, and pieces from old museum collections: the kind of things that would inspire local collectors (and add value greater than the sum of the parts to this collection as a significant locality suite at the same time). I never thought this collection would be for sale and now I am proud to offer this historic collection here. My thanks to Bill Larson for his help in labelling and providing history on his specimens.
I have finally been able to get cleaned, prepped, and posted the second installment (another 50+ specimens!) from my 2008 acquisition of this fine and large collection of San Diego County minerals. Stay tuned for update III, a final 50-60 specimens, by end of 2009.
Click here for a photo of the collection in its original home:
PALA INTERNATIONAL COMPANY'S SAN DIEGO COUNTY locality collection!
US$
€ EURO
¥ YEN
£ POUND
CAN$
AUS$
(click on a page number to go to that page:)
page 1 / 3 - 31 specimens selected - next - bottom - back to the Galleries
PALASD-19 - Smoky Quartz - $ 950
Audrey Lynn Mine, Cahuilla Mtn., Riverside County, California
cabinet, 9.5 x 6.2 x 5.6 cm
ex. William Larson
A REALLY GOOD, gemmy, transparent, equant, smoky quartz from this small recent mine! From the miner, Philip Osborn: I dug the crystal in the mid 90's and I also faceted the stone out of material from the same pocket. Its an outstanding American quartz in any case, and of rare gemminess. The gem is 2 cm across and 22 carats.
PALASD-03 - Spodumene - $ 2500
Pala Chief Mine, Pala, San Diego County, California
cabinet, 13.1 x 5.4 x 2.0 cm
ex. William Larson
A VRY LARGE, rare spodumene crystal from the main dike of the Pala Chief Mine, accoridng to Bill dated sometime before 1960. It is large, complete, and has a pleasing faint green color in person. If you didn't knwo if was from THIS collection, I admit you would certainly at first think this is an Afghani specimen. But, instead, its an amazing piece from San Diego County, large and gemmy and quite reflective in person from its many facets.
PALASD-20 - Tourmaline - $ 950
Little Three Mine, near Ramona, San Diego County, California
small cabinet, 9.0 x 3.7 x 3.5 cm
ex. William Larson
An unusual yellowish-green tourmaline from the Little Three, obtained in teh 1970s from Louis Spalding Sr., This crystal is complete all around, oddly tapered to multiple terminations at the bottom. It is quite gemmy when very strongly backlit though without such light, appears dark (typical for the mine). 178 grams
PALASD-06 - Quartz included by Montmorillonite - $ 750
White Queen Mine, San Diego County, California
cabinet, 14.2 x 5.9 x 4.5 cm
ex. William Larson
A classic of San Diego pegmatites, these odd pink-colored quartzes are colored by dispersed inclusions of Montmorillonite , and historically were often sliced and diced for sale in pieces to the locals. This is a really large, relatively elegant piece of good quality.
PALASD-22 - Tourmaline - $ 2500 SOLD
Little Three Mine, near Ramona, San Diego County, California
small cabinet, 6.5 x 5.7 x 5.3 cm
ex. William Larson
A classic, very fat, dark green tourmaline from the Little Three Mine. These are for some reason the characteristic style of large tourmaline from this location - very dark, but a glowing neon green when strongly backlit. They were very popular for carving rough in the old days! This is a particularly good crystal for the size for its condition, and color saturation. 393 grams
PALASD-08 - Topaz - $ 2500 SOLD
near Warners Hot Springs, Agunga mountain, San Diego County, California
small cabinet, 7.1 x 5.5 x 3.4 cm
ex. William Larson
While not pristine, this is a major, fairly important locality topaz crystal for the county. It has great color, really even ore intense sky blue than you'd expect from the more famous Little Three Mine elsewhere in the county. It has more intensity and more lustre, in fact. There is a fair amount of edge wear, particularly on the righthand side as we clearly show. Nevertheless, it displays well in a case as color-flash, and is an important piece for a locality suite from San Diego that for the color/size/price balance seemed to me to be a pretty good deal.
PALASD-23 - Smoky Quartz - $ 900 SOLD
Little Three Mine, San Diego County, California
small cabinet, 9.3 x 5.8 x 4.8 cm
ex. William Larson
Another fine San Diego quartz! Bill knew the rarity of truly gemmy quartz from this region, and kept several smokies in particular in this collection over the years. The Little Three Mine produced much smoky quartz, but few of this see-through quality in the size range shown here. And, its condition is excellent as well. A county rarity, but also just a good US quartz by any standard.
PALASD-09 - Topaz - $ 4000 SOLD
Little Three Mine, near Ramona, San Diego County, California
miniature, 4.9 x 3.9 x 3.4 cm
ex. William Larson
This is quite simply one of the finest blue topaz miniatures we have seen from San Diego. There are a few this quality and larger, but not many. This crystal has cvolor, lustre, gemminess , transparency, and a sharp form that is almost impossible to find in a Little Three topaz. Most of them simply do not have such a well developed termination with all faces intact, and nicely bevelled as you see here. And when they do, so often the color is pale. So for the locality, its great - but also this is a good blue topaz even by worldwide standards, and of entirely different habit (and so distinct) from the productive Brazilian topaz finds. IN fact, it looks like the historic 1800s-era Russian topazes which are shown in old books and a few museums, but with more color.
PALASD-55 - Tourmaline - $ 4500 SOLD
Cryo-Genie Mine, near Warner Springs San Diego County, California
small cabinet, 7.3 x 6.4 x 3.3 cm
ex. William Larson
NOTE that this is NOT from the Pala Collection, but I got it at the same time and included here as it fit well. It was mined by the Gochenour brothers around 2003. This comes from the collection of beloved collector and swapper Al Ordway, who we lost last year. It was sold to me by his collecting partner Jon Page, who sold it to me at Tucson 2008 for the family. It is a rare matrix Cryo-Genie piece, and , importantly, unrepaired. It has a very broad blue cap to it which is most unusual, attractive, and impressive when displayed. I have not seen another Cryo tourmaline like this, in fact. This small mine is probably not going to produce more, in all likelihood, as it did during a short run in the early 2000's.
PALASD-56 - Tourmaline - $ 3500 SOLD
Tourmaline Queen Mine, Pala, California
miniature, 5.2 x 4.3 x 4.2 cm
ex. William Larson
Wow! I NEVER KNEW such good, gemmy, fat indicolites came out of this mine! Yet, Bill did and he hoarded them when they turned up. Apparently they were found in the 1960s and collectors in San Diego pretty much kept them amongst themselves. This robust crystal has great color and with moderate backlighting only, it glows. With strong backlighting, it goes translucent. It is complete on the front, though has some edge damage on back faces (you can see this in the 2nd photo, right edge which is simply the rear in the first orientation shown). This is a most unusual, totally unique style for any tourmaline from the US , so far as I can think of, and reminiscent more of Afghani material than anything you expect to see from California. If you saw it outside of this context, you WOULD swear it was Afghani, not Californian. 184 grams
PALASD-17 - Topaz - $ 2000 SOLD
Little Three Mine, near Ramona, San Diego County, California
miniature, 4.8 x 4.3 x 4.2 cm
ex. William Larson
Another very fine San Diego blue topaz from the collection, this one is taller and more stout, although less gemmy, than the above piece. It has a very pleasing sky-blue color and high lustre, with good gemminess that is better in person than the photos reflect. In room lighting the color on the black background is more accurate, but in halogen or sunlight, it shows more blue on a white background. San Diego blue topaz is one of the most desired of US mineral specimens, but good crystals are few and far between
PALASD-10 - Schorl with Quartz and Albite - $ 1450 SOLD
Pala Chief Mine, San Diego County, California
cabinet, 11.9 x 7.8 x 5.5 cm
ex. William Larson
A dramatic large, unrepaired specimen of fat schorl crystals accented with gemmy quartz and stark white albite blades. It is complete all around save for an unusual contact spot on the lefthand side (shown forward in 2nd photo). This would be considered exceptional for the locality and a great schorl by any standard from a US locale.
PALASD-11 - Sapphire - $ 2500 SOLD
San Jacinto Peak, San Jacinto Range, Riverside Co., California
cabinet, 10.5 x 7.5 x 5.5 cm
ex. William Larson
A super example of these strange sapphires collected in the mid 1990s by the Gochenour brothers, in Riverside County (OK, strictly speaking not in San Diego County but hey, its close enough). THis crystal is very aesthetically placed, and displayed in the matrix. It has, as most do, a few clean repairs but the price is also adjusted accordingly. These are significant and unusual big sapphire crystals for a US locality!
PALASD-58 - Tourmaline Green Cap Pocket - $ 6500 SOLD
Himalaya Mine, Pala, California
miniature, 5.1 x 4.8 x 4.4 cm
ex. William Larson
This equant, intensely colored crystal is from the famous Green Cap Pocket of 1988, collected by John McLean working for Pala Intl. This is the crystal they kept for their own collection, amidst only a dozen or so good singles of this size. Pieces today are almost impossible to come by - I don't think I have seen more than 4 or 5 and only seen 2 for sale in any case (the last one, which was twice this tall, and perhaps also twice the mass, sold for 30k in 2004 and for more than that when it changed hands in Europe in 2007). These crystals , in person, have a more intense green cap and sharp definition of color bands than some seemingly similar material found in the older days of the Himalaya Mine (which is duller in color and has a less defined cap). Frankly, if you did not know any better and had not seen others from this ONE single pocket, you would swear this was from Afghanistan. The crystal has only very minor edgewear and is as pristine as you could really hope to get. It is a good, impressive size (large miniature/small cab borderline) and shows dramatically in a case. 225 grams
PALASD-59 - Tourmaline - $ 30000 SOLD
Stewart Mine, Pala, California
small cabinet, 9.1 x 7.7 x 7.7 cm
ex. William Larson
This is a VERY impressive 805-gram (about 2 pounds!) beast from the turn of the 1900's workings at the Stewart. People living in San Diego today simply do not realize that the avenues leading to Pacific Beach were named after minerals because of the rich mines in the mountains, that led to booming business selling exactly this quality of tourmaline carving rough to the empress dowager of China (until about WWI). In San Diego today, I was shocked to be told that I was mispronouncing the street name Garnet (main drag to the beach) as the mineral name (GAR-net), instead of as the supposedly proper "gar-NET" which the locals today call it by. All the more ironic, because John Sinkankas lived at the end of that road, too! . Tourmaline, Beryl, Feldspar streets continue the trend. This piece is a survivor, and a rare one, of those early California tourmaline mining days. I need to note that the specimen, while nearly pristine on the front (and quite aesthetic as you can see!), has some damage on the backside and to some few of the small accessory/accent crystals. This does not detract in context, I feel. However, and the reason this isn't $50-75k, apparently Mr. Warner had a lapidary hobby as well and he gave the termination a polish back in the old days, so it is not a fully natural termination (though from pitting and trace cracks we can tell the polish is on the natural surface, and not a sliced surface). It is from the famed collection of Pasadena playboy millionaire, Thomas Warner, who bequeathed his collection to Cal Tech (from which Bill traded this out in the 1970s). Few survive because, just as then, they have INTRINSIC and very high carving value. This piece weighs 800 grams. It is the choicest old hot pink color. At carving rough prices, i can sell it today for $20,000 to the asian market to be turned into a pink lotus, or a tourmaline buddha. I did NOT take that offer, because it seems a travesty. So, here's hoping it finds its way to a new mineral collection home after Warner, Cal Tech, and larson in the last 90 years or so.
|
(click on a page number to go to that page:)
page 1 / 3 - 31 specimens selected - next - top - back to the Galleries
Rob Lavinsky, rob@irocks.com
All Content and Design ©1996-2010 The Arkenstone
By-species Galleries
|
