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Mineral Specimens with Corundum
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2.5 x 0.9 x 0.7 cm. An outstanding "fishtail"-twinned Sapphire crystal from one of the most classic localities in the world for the Corundum variety. This gem quality light blue, very sharp, highly lustrous, doubly-terminated, striated, "floater", hexagonal Sapphire twinned crystal is a marvelous example of how fine the quality of these crystals can get. The crystal is pristine on all sides and absolutely water-clear in about 80% of the crystal. Ex. Brian Kosnar Collection.
1.7 x 1.7 x 1.5 cm. The color and gemminess of this ruby are nonpareil, and the luster is very good. It has pigeon-blood red color and great translucency. Wendell regarded this as the best thumbnail he had seen of this style/locality. Ex. Wendell E. Wilson Collection.
17.0 x 7.2 x 5.5 cm. A dramatic, large, 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 and the same basic geology). This crystal is very aesthetically placed and displayed in the matrix. It has, as most do, a few clean repairs stabilized by glue. These are significant and unusual big sapphire crystals for a US locality. It is one of the bigger ones... 17 cm tall and among the finest found in this remarkable onetime find. Ex. William Larson Collection.
3.2 x 3.1 x 2.4 cm. Although it does not exhibit classic crystal form, this ruby does have an unusual color zoning, where the periphery is more deeply colored in classic ruby red outlining around a slightly lavender-hued center. It is on massive, gemmy scapolite matrix...the ruby so transparent that the underlying scapolite is easily discernible. This is a fascinating corundum specimen. Ex. William Larson Collection.
5.9 x 2.8 x 2.1 cm. This specimen features a sharp crystal of ruby, unusual for the species in its tapering point. It is 1.5 cm tall and glows. The color in person is a more typical "ruby red" than in the photo, and the glow of the crystal when backlit is striking.
3.9 x 2.5 x 1.4 cm. This heart-shaped twin of sapphire is truly spectacular, much better in person. This type of twinning is extremely rare in corundum. The luster, transparency, and pastel blue color are enhanced by the definitive twinning plane and the directional change of the striations on either side.
4.5 x 3.4 x 2.3 cm. Ruby from this uncommon Macedonia, Greece locality is rare and is very rarely available on the market. This is a huge, sharply crystallized, hexagonal, floater ruby crystal and it is pristine. This crystal has beautiful, rich, reddish-pink color with striking orange accents and is nicely translucent. Weighs 75 grams. A beautiful, large and sharp ruby from Greece.
3.8 x 3 x 1.7 cm. Most sapphire crystals are long prismatic and terminate in pyramids. This glowing, bubble-gum pink, translucent and very lustrous sapphire is really unique and special. It is short and prismatic, and doubly terminated - a floater all around. The specimen clearly exhibits hexagonal shape.
2.6 x 0.7 x 0.6 cm. A rarely seen, sharp, euhedral, orange-pink, hexagonal single crystal of Sapphire from the Morogoro area in Tanzania. This is one of the few crystals that I have seen from this area in a while, mostly because nearly 99% of the crystals from Morogoro end up either being faceted into stones, or are sent to Asia to be carved. This crystal has good luster for the locality, and the color is not terribly common from this area either.
2.4 x 1.5 x 1.2 cm. A fine thumbnail cluster of lustrous, translucent, classic pigeon’s-blood red, ruby crystals from recent finds at Luc Yen, Vietnam. The crystals are nicely striated and the large crystal is doubly terminated.
A gemmy and lustrous, doubly-terminated, transparent-translucent, yellow sapphire crystal from Ratnapura, Sri Lanka. Nice color and exceptional form! 2.9 x 1.1 x 1.0 cm
7.3 x 6.0 x 4.0 cm. This is one of the best examples of the recently found polychrome sapphire specimens from Madagascar, for both size and quality. I exchanged it directly from Dr. Federico Pezzotta who collected it while doing research there. It features three excellent, sharp, lustrous, prismatic, hexagonal crystals of a bluish-purple color with distinctive pink zones perched smartly on schist matrix. The striking, doubly terminated crystal with the pink termination is 2.6 cm. There are also pieces of reddish-brown sapphires next to the purple ones.
2.6 x 0.9 x 0.7 cm. Yellow sapphires are rare from the famous gem deposits of Ratnapura, Sri Lanka, but this specimen is particularly rare, because sapphire doublets are extremely rare from this famous locale. The gemmy and lustrous tapered crystals are pristine and have classic, very well-striated crystal faces. Weighs 13.82 carats.
8.8 x 8.4 x 3.1 cm. For both size and quality, this is one of the very best examples of the recently found Corundum specimens from Madagascar. I exchanged it directly from Dr. Federico Pezzotta who collected it while doing research there. It features several excellent quality, very sharp, lustrous, prismatic, hexagonal crystals of a bluish-purple color (with slight pink zones) measuring up to 2.6 cm long perched smartly on schist matrix. Some of these specimens show an obvious color change from indoor lighting to sunlight, but I can't see much of a change in this piece.
5.5 x 3.2 x 3 cm. The former owner referred to this as a "jolt of color" in his case. This ruby specimen glows with intense color, the color they call "pigeon-blood red" over there. It has also an incredible, waxy but glassy lustre that is hard to describe and I think is unique to great corundums. The sum is, it glows and sparkles in a case, with even minimal lighting to backlight it. The color is also consistent throughout except only a very small crystal portion; and you can see the whole specimen is crystallized. Burmese rubies of large size are commonly lumpy, but this shows incredibly intricate faces, particularly on the display view. It is a floater, complete-all-around, if somewhat irregular on the backside. I recall seeing this piece, in Tucson around 2004 when Bill Larson deaccessed this from his extensive Burma collection (certainly the best American collection of gem crystals from that country) and put it out for sale in Tucson. It was the centerpiece of one shelf in his display, as I recall: Just for color, and to attract buyers in. I recall it was priced on request, and frankly I do not believe to this day he really thought it would sell that quickly and wanted to keep it in the end; but it sold three times over on the opening weekend of the Westward Look show. I thought about buying it myself then (a question of budget), and I went back later to negotiate but it was already gone. 2 Years later, I found myself staring at it in a collection, and recognized it immediately. Now I have it back again, from the Tom Hall collection. Tom is a longtime collector, recently retired from working, who since the 1960s has specialized in colorful miniatures and small cabinet pieces of high quality, trying to obtain the best he could in this size range from major, classic finds. His collection was always small but filled with choice beauties such as this. The piece is a very large miniature at 5.5 cm. Ex. Tom Hall and William Larson Collection. Photo by Joe Budd.
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Rob Lavinsky, rob@irocks.com
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share specimen![Corundum (Var: Sapphire) from Ratnapura, Ratnapura District, Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka [db_pics/mdpics/MD-258755a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-258755a.jpg)
![Corundum (Var: Ruby) from Jegdalek (Jagdalek; Jagdalak; Jagdalik) Ruby Mine, Sorobi District, Kabol (Kabul) Province, Afghanistan [db_pics/mdpics/MD-258985a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-258985a.jpg)
![Corundum (Var: Sapphire) from Unnamed Corundum Occurrences, San Jacinto Mountains, Riverside Co., California, USA [db_pics/mdpics/MD-259682a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-259682a.jpg)
![Corundum (Var: Ruby), Scapolite from Dattaw Hill, Mogok, Sagaing District, Mandalay Division, Burma (Myanmar) [db_pics/mdpics/MD-260428a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-260428a.jpg)
![Corundum (Var: Ruby), Scapolite from Dattaw Hill, Mogok, Sagaing District, Mandalay Division, Burma (Myanmar) [db_pics/mdpics/MD-260428b.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-260428b.jpg)
![Corundum (Var: Ruby) from Jegdalek (Jagdalek; Jagdalak; Jagdalik) Ruby Mine, Sorobi District, Kabol (Kabul) Province, Afghanistan [db_pics/mdpics/MD-260435a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-260435a.jpg)
![Corundum (Var: Ruby) from Jegdalek (Jagdalek; Jagdalak; Jagdalik) Ruby Mine, Sorobi District, Kabol (Kabul) Province, Afghanistan [db_pics/mdpics/MD-260435b.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-260435b.jpg)
![Corundum (Var: Sapphire) from Eheliyagoda, Ratnapura, Ratnapura District, Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka [db_pics/mdpics/MD-260474a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-260474a.jpg)
![Corundum (Var: Ruby) from Paranesti, Dráma Prefecture, Macedonia Department, Greece [db_pics/mdpics/MD-261691a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-261691a.jpg)
![Corundum (Var: Sapphire) from Dattaw Hill, Mogok, Sagaing District, Mandalay Division, Burma (Myanmar) [db_pics/mdpics/MD-262211a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-262211a.jpg)
![Corundum (Var: Sapphire) from Morogoro marble occurrence, Uluguru Mts (Uruguru Mts), Morogoro Region, Tanzania [db_pics/mdpics/MD-263724a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-263724a.jpg)
![Corundum (Var: Ruby) from Luc Yen, Yenbai (Yen Bai) Province, Vietnam [db_pics/mdpics/MD-263829a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-263829a.jpg)
![Corundum (Var: Sapphire) from Ratnapura, Ratnapura District, Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka [db_pics/mdpics/MD-26441a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-26441a.jpg)
![Corundum (Var: Sapphire) from Zazafotsy Quarry (Amboarohy), Zazafotsy Commune, Ihosy District, Horombe Region, Fianarantsoa Province, Madagascar [db_pics/mdpics/MD-266997a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-266997a.jpg)
![Corundum (Var: Sapphire) from Zazafotsy Quarry (Amboarohy), Zazafotsy Commune, Ihosy District, Horombe Region, Fianarantsoa Province, Madagascar [db_pics/mdpics/MD-266997b.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-266997b.jpg)
![Corundum (Var: Sapphire) from Ratnapura, Ratnapura District, Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka [db_pics/mdpics/MD-270270a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-270270a.jpg)
![Corundum (Var: Sapphire) from Zazafotsy Quarry (Amboarohy), Zazafotsy Commune, Ihosy District, Horombe Region, Fianarantsoa Province, Madagascar [db_pics/mdpics/MD-270328a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-270328a.jpg)
![Corundum (Var: Sapphire) from Zazafotsy Quarry (Amboarohy), Zazafotsy Commune, Ihosy District, Horombe Region, Fianarantsoa Province, Madagascar [db_pics/mdpics/MD-270328b.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-270328b.jpg)
![Corundum (Var: Ruby) from Mogok, Sagaing District, Mandalay Division, Burma (Myanmar) [db_pics/mdpics/MD-271368a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-271368a.jpg)