|
Mineral Specimens with Beryl
(click on a page number to go to that page:)
page 66 / 92 - prev - 1375 specimens selected - next
7.9 x 5.1 x 4.7 cm. When it comes to Aquamarine, Pakistan is the most productive country for specimens in the modern age of mineral collecting. Some of the very finest quality Aquamarine specimens come from the various pegmatites in the Pakistani Himalayas, especially in the Shigar Valley. Matrix specimens of Aquamarine are still fairly uncommon in the world, and to find an association piece such as this is a real treat. The piece hosts a solitary, euhedral, pale blue color, prismatic crystal of Aquamarine measuring 1.7 cm long which is protruding from a matrix comprising sharp, well-formed, distinct, snow-white crystals of Albite.
3.0 x 0.8 x 0.7 cm. This Aquamarine specimen was mined by Richard Kosnar in the late 1970's and his diggings produced some of the finest color, unheated Aquamarine in the world. Most of these crystals are not gem quality, but this crystal is approximately 90% gem clarity, which is very good for the material. This crystal is a fine, sharp, gem/gemmy, slightly hydrothermally etched, rich blue color crystal from one of the more obscure localities for the material in the world. Ex. Richard Kosnar Collection.
7.8 x 0.6 x 0.5 cm. When it comes to Aquamarine, Pakistan is the most productive country for specimens in the modern age of mineral collecting. Some of the very finest quality Aquamarine specimens come from the various pegmatites in the Pakistani Himalayas. This crystal is a sharp, doubly-terminated, gem quality "pencil" with good glassy luster and a soft blue color.
Quite simply, I feel this is the most superb Chinese aqua of its size and style. Look how sharp and reflective the side faces are! Most are pale and barely quality as aquamarine but this is a richer blue in color compared to other Chinese pieces. It is unusually fat (to almost 3 cm) and gemmy as well as extremely lustrous. In person it is actually much more transparent to translucent than you see in the pics, too! The crystal is complete all around, 360-degrees, and is PRISTINE. I KNOW most people are tempted to dismiss Chinese Aquas as being not much better than flat goshenites, but this one is DIFFERENT and is truly impressive in every way. It is an older specimen that came out some time ago in the earlier days of production at this locality, and has been in the Matthew Webb Collection in Australia for several years. 7 x 6.5 x 4.4 cm
1.8 x 1.6 x 1.3 cm. An excellent example of aquamarine with schorl from one of the lesser known African beryl locations - the Jos Plaeau of Nigeria. The upper two-thirds of the aquamarine is water-clear, gemmy, with great blue color intensity and a fine, modified, pinacoidal termination. The aquamarine is superbly accented with lustrous schorl crystals, embedded on the sides and included in the interior. This is a rare combination specimen from this locale. Ex. Irv Brown Thumbnail Collection.
5.1 x 4.2 x 3.2 cm. A very nice, delicate-looking specimen with sharp, totally gem aquamarines shooting out every which way. This aquamarine specimen is like a little jewel.
12.7 x 11.0 x 6.1 cm. This looks like a snowball with aquamarines poking out. The cleavelandite matrix is stark white and sparkling, totally pure and with a clean whiteness that is most unusual, even from this classic locale. The totally gemmy aquamarines poke out every which way, showcasing their gem transparency against the clean white background. It makes for one of the more sparkling combination pieces I have seen from here. Sharp, silvery-metallic muscovite crystals add some geometric contrast to the piece, as well. Lastly, it is nearly a floater: a complete crystallized mass of muscovite, aquamarine, cleavelandite, all perched on a bit of minor schorl tourmaline sticking down and out the bottom.
4.6 x 3.5 x 1.7 cm. This superb miniature is one of the most dramatic Erongo Aquamarines I have yet handled. It is a complete-all-around, perfect, spray of well-balanced crystals. They have robust color and an unusually fine gemminess, and internal brightness, to them. The tips are all pristine, and very slightly included with a dusting of schorl which offsets them nicely.
5.6 x 4.4 x 3.2 cm. A gorgeous, gemmy and lustrous, 1.1 cm emerald crystal with superb color is set atop blocky, starkly contrasting calcite and shale matrix from the Coscuez Mine of Colombia. This crystal is particularly gemmy in the upper 2 mm and does not appear to have any inclusions or internal crazing. A very fine, highly representative emerald specimen.
5.0 x 4.5 x 2.7 cm. An aesthetic cluster of rare, yellow-tipped aquamarine crystals from a recent one-time find in the Erongo Mountains. Each of the gemmy and lustrous crystals have good color, become gemmier toward their terminations and have a distinctive 3 mm zone of green at their terminations. The terminations on the striking upright cluster are nearly pristine.
5.2 x 2.9 x 2.1 cm. This rather stout, hexagonal crystal of very pale blue Beryl (essentially colorless) has sharp, well-defined faces, good luster on select faces, and a nice termination, but the most interesting aspect of the piece is the fact that it has some incredibly beautiful and unique "feather"-like, (almost resembling cotton) inclusions inside of the water-clear upper portion of the crystal. Even though the inclusions have no defined form, they are certainly ethereal and wispy in appearance.
5.3 x 4.2 x 3.6 cm. A group of rich pink, translucent, lustrous, hexagonal Beryl (var: "Morganite") crystals sit atop a matrix of off-white blocky Albite (var "Cleavelandite") crystals with Quartz and minor Muscovite and Schorl. The largest Morganite crystal measures 2.6 cm across, but please note that the back of the crystal group is contacted. A very attractive and well crystallized display specimen of this classic pegmatite material.
1.7 x 1.6 x 1.1 cm. An aesthetic thumbnail cluster of classic, cranberry-red beryl crystals from the famous Wah Wah Mountains of Utah. The crystals are highly lustrous and part of the main crystal is very gemmy. This is a fine thumbnail representation of the rare species with glowing color, from this noted locale.
7.9 x 7.0 x 4.5 cm. This specimen is a very rich plate of emeralds embedded in massive quartz matrix, with a thin coating of mica-schist on the exposed upper surface where the emeralds pop out of the quartz. This specimen is unusual in that most of the pieces now brought to market from this mine have either quartz or mica but not both on the same specimen, indicating perhaps this was at the boundary layer of the two types of deposition. Overall, it is very 3-dimensional and very colorful. The large crystal atop is naturally distorted, "bent," a rare phenomenon in beryls. It is nearly 4 cm long, and is not repaired. It has a lustrous termination, though with minor edge wear around the rim. In person these are a more vibrant green, but come across darker in the photo than in real life. When backlit they practically glow. This is one of the richest specimens I have seen from these new finds, in terms of overall concentration and mass of emeralds on one plate. Admittedly, the specimen production from here is not very much in terms of quantity yet (and perhaps never will be), but of that production I have seen most of what was prepared in the last year as the mine finally made a specimen-preparation deal to get them out to our market - from that sample, this was fairly impressive for overall impact and concentration.
6.8 x 5.8 x 2.0 cm. While there were perhaps (only!) several dozen specimens recovered that featured large crystals in matrix, from what I saw of the find, most were repaired at least once if not more - and few had such nice aesthetics as this one. The large central crystal on this expertly trimmed matrix is 6.5 cm tall. It is 1.3 cm wide and 8 mm in depth. This piece stood out to my eye because it has a very good size (for any emerald locale) and is tremendously aesthetic, yet miraculously has no repairs. It has a natural tectonic break: here, the crystal broke in geologic time, in situ; and the gap between was filled with later quartz deposition. By careful preparation, the specimen has been preserved on a solid matrix plate of quartz with mica schist on the rear side. Frankly, I am not as much shocked they got it out in one piece, but that the termination was able to be so well-excavated from the surrounding matrix as to be freestanding ( at some risk). The freestanding tip extends about an inch over the matrix rim, now. The crystal is transparent to translucent through its length, though mostly at the top. For this find, the termination is quite good - sharp and even, without etching or damage. This specimen has fine lustre, and a characteristic deep forest-green color this mine is known for (quite darker than most Colombian material).
(click on a page number to go to that page:)
page 66 / 92 - prev - 1375 specimens selected - next
Rob Lavinsky, rob@irocks.com
All Content and Design ©1996-2012 The Arkenstone
Mineral Specimens by species; or
by specimen id.
|
share specimen![Beryl (Var: Aquamarine), Quartz, Albite from Shigar Valley, Skardu District, Baltistan, Northern Areas, Pakistan [db_pics/mdpics/MD-273355a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-273355a.jpg)
![Beryl (Var: Aquamarine) from Sawtooth Batholith/Sawtooth Mts, Boise Co., Idaho, USA [db_pics/mdpics/MD-273378a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-273378a.jpg)
![Beryl (Var: Aquamarine) from Bien, Basha Valley (Basha Nala; Basna), Skardu District, Baltistan, Northern Areas, Pakistan [db_pics/mdpics/MD-273389a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-273389a.jpg)
![Beryl (Var: Aquamarine) from Beryl-Scheelite deposit, Huya village, Mt Xuebaoding, Pingwu Co., Mianyang Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China [db_pics/mdpics/MD-27453a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-27453a.jpg)
![Beryl (Var: Aquamarine), Schorl from Jos Plateau, Plateau State, Nigeria [db_pics/mdpics/MD-275044a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-275044a.jpg)
![Beryl (Var: Aquamarine), Schorl from Erongo Mountain, Usakos and Omaruru Districts, Erongo Region, Namibia [db_pics/mdpics/MD-275084a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-275084a.jpg)
![Beryl (Var: Aquamarine), Schorl from Erongo Mountain, Usakos and Omaruru Districts, Erongo Region, Namibia [db_pics/mdpics/MD-275084b.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-275084b.jpg)
![Beryl (Var: Aquamarine), Muscovite, Albite (Var: Cleavelandite) from Shigar Valley, Skardu District, Baltistan, Northern Areas, Pakistan [db_pics/mdpics/MD-275086a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-275086a.jpg)
![Beryl (Var: Aquamarine), Schorl from Erongo Mountain, Usakos and Omaruru Districts, Erongo Region, Namibia [db_pics/mdpics/MD-275091a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-275091a.jpg)
![Beryl (Var: Emerald), Calcite from Coscuez Mine (Cosquez Mine), Muzo, Vasquez-Yacopí Mining District, Boyacá Department, Colombia [db_pics/mdpics/MD-278349a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-278349a.jpg)
![Beryl (Var: Emerald), Calcite from Coscuez Mine (Cosquez Mine), Muzo, Vasquez-Yacopí Mining District, Boyacá Department, Colombia [db_pics/mdpics/MD-278349b.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-278349b.jpg)
![Beryl (Var: Heliodor), Beryl (Var: Aquamarine) from Erongo Mountain, Usakos and Omaruru Districts, Erongo Region, Namibia [db_pics/mdpics/MD-278399a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-278399a.jpg)
![Beryl from Dache (Dassu; Dasu; Haramosh-Dassu; Dacha), Haramosh Mts., Gilgit District, Northern Areas, Pakistan [db_pics/mdpics/MD-278462a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-278462a.jpg)
![Beryl (Var: Morganite), Albite, Quartz, Schorl, Muscovite from Mawi pegmatite, Laghman (Lagman; Nuristan) Province, Afghanistan [db_pics/mdpics/MD-278464a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-278464a.jpg)
![Beryl (Var: Red Beryl) from Violet claims, Wah Wah Mts, Beaver Co., Utah, USA [db_pics/mdpics/MD-278485a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-278485a.jpg)
![Beryl (Var: Emerald), Quartz from Kagem Emerald Mine, Kafubu Emerald District, Ndola, Copperbelt Province, Zambia [db_pics/mdpics/MD-279095a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-279095a.jpg)
![Beryl (Var: Emerald), Quartz from Kagem Emerald Mine, Kafubu Emerald District, Ndola, Copperbelt Province, Zambia [db_pics/mdpics/MD-279096a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-279096a.jpg)