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6.6 x 6.0 x 4.5 cm. This is a rare matrix specimen from these mines, with a deep wine-red crystal enclosed in a quartz point, grown together somehow. The quartz is frosted or altering on its surface, giving a stark matte white background to the tourmaline which offsets it nicely. Complete, no repairs...this is rare, for the location, where most tourmalines are found as loose singles or big chunky matrix specimens but few in aesthetic associations. Weighs 188 grams.
8.3 x 7.6 x 6.8 cm. A classic Himalaya pink tourmaline, measuring 6.5 x 2.2 x about 1 cm, is perched, embedded rather, in a complete feldspar crystal here. The feldspar is a floater - complete all around, top, bottom, and sides. Even more, it is a Mannebach Twin crystal - and a big, complete one that is really quite unprecedented in this condition for the Himalaya Mine. The tourmaline sits on the floater, and itself is doubly-terminated (though the bottom term is not smooth and lustrous, it is terminated). Matrix Himalaya pieces are not common at all. Matrix specimens on a feldspar crystal are rarer. And on a floater like this, I have seen only a handful. Also, it is of good size and classic color. Weighs 573 grams. This was long in the collection of a San Francisco collector, Jean Parrish, and comes with her old note that it was "exhibited in a trophy case at the Las Vegas Show in 1975, originally from Norm Dawson." Norm owned the White Queen mine in its heyday and was a well-known San Diego collector. Definitely an old piece from the independent era of mining here, and with good pedigree.
5.9 x 3.1 x 2.8 cm. A dramatically deep maroon-colored crystal with intense color saturation, this is quite translucent when strongly lit. In normal lighting, it is not gemmy but the intensity of the color and the unique, complex termination makes it nevertheless very interesting. Weighs 101 grams.
6.2 x 2.9 x 2.6 cm. This crystal is a classic example showing very well the steep termination for which this locality is best known. Unusually colored yellow-brown in its core, with more red atop the termination, this is quite translucent when backlit. Weighs 84 grams.
7.0 x 4.6 x 4.0 cm. A very fat, darkly colored tourmaline from this classic locale. It is complete all around, technically a floater as the bottom is crudely terminated as well. I like the classic, dark color - this was once called "siberite", a variety of rubellite from Russia, for this reason. Weighs 196 grams.
6.0 x 4.3 x 2.5 cm. This is a very unusual Himalaya mine tourmaline crystal, 3.5 x 2.2 cm, and varying to 1 cm thick. It is delicately but firmly ensconced in a doubly-terminated quartz crystal, making the whole piece a floater. A small, slender tourmaline is stuck inside, and shows just the tip coming out at the base of the major crystal. This is from the Irv Brown San Diego Collection, which was displayed at the Fallbrook Museum for number of years.
5.3 x 0.8 x 0.7 cm. This is a totally gem pencil of tourmaline from this important locality, which Steve told me came out in the 1980s. The green cap on it is striking, as it comes so unexpectedly and without gradient. Most of us think of this mine for the etched green-and-pink crystals which it is famous for, but this is a different, and somewhat earlier find. Ex. Dr. Stephen Smale Collection.
7.6 x 2.0 x 1.9 cm. This is a fine small cabinet cluster of extremely lustrous, dark green tourmaline from the classic older finds at this mine in the 1970s. In recent years, around 2000-2007, the mine was worked again but this was a different pegmatite layer, and the production was not surprisingly, stylistically different from this older material. This would be typical of the style from the older era, but it is of superb quality. The lustre really is remarkable. Looking up into the broken-off bottom, the tourmaline shows some (stable) alteration to asbestiform tourmaline within....the beginning of a natural process of dissolution from the inside out that has left some of these as hollow casts of tourmaline when found. Ex. Dr. Stephen Smale Collection.
4.6 x 1.0 x 0.9 cm. This is the classic green-and-pink crystal style which this mine is so justifiably famous for, starkly different from other tourmaline finds and so immediately recognizable. They came out in the 1990s. The translucent, lustrous, forest green second growth tourmaline is grown over an interior, etched pink stalk. This crystal is very symmetric in the size of the overgrowth, and very gemmy when backlit. Steve had a whole hoard of these, and sold most some time ago, leaving only cherry-picked-out better pieces in his current trade stock. Ex. Dr. Stephen Smale Collection.
8.3 x 0.7 x 0.6 cm. Santa Rosa, for consistency of color in the blue-green hues, was always known as one of the best gem-rough producers. This crystal shows why. The intensity of color, the transparency and internal brightness, and the lustre, all prove the reason for the high value put on cut tourmaline gems from this mine. This is a totally pristine, elongated crystal with a sharp termination, 100% gemmy throughout its entire length. It is much better in lustre and color saturation in person than the photo shows, and requires almost no backlighting, to show off its gemminess. Ex. Dr. Stephen Smale Collection.
5.8 x 2.9 x 3.5 cm. This superb cluster of tourmaline crystals is from the Virgem da Lapa area, known more for topaz than for tourmaline. It is complete all around and has excellent, glassy lustre to it. The 3-dimensional geometry is really interesting and visually makes the piece look bigger than it really is. It was obtained from well-known dealer Carlos Barbosa, in Brazil, in April of 1976. Ex. Dr. Stephen Smale Collection.
5.0 x 1.5 x 1.4 cm. This is a superb miniature from what Steve calls the Lipstick-Pocket of Cruzeiro tourmalines. It shades from green through blue and clear, to a cranberry cap. This came out in the early 1990s while he was teaching in Rio, and Steve drove into the interior and bought the entire pocket at the time, keeping extras for trade stock and resale. However, he sold all his extras off a long time ago and kept the best - among them, this superb miniature. He kept, until recently, thumbnail and miniature and larger examples of every pocket he had bought down in Brazil, and had suites in each size range. The stark separation of the zones and contrast of the colors is riveting, in person. Ex. Dr. Stephen Smale Collection.
5.7 x 0.9 x 0.9 cm. A fine gem tourmaline crystal from Paprok that is pretty much "classic" in design and coloration for this locality - with a bright green body and a glassy, gemmy pink tip. Also familiar is the multi-peaked termination. Complete all around. Weighs 10 grams.
5.8 x 5.0 x 3.6 cm. A classic, sharp, gemmy and lustrous, pastel-pink morganite crystal nicely set upright on cleavelandite and quartz matrix from recent finds in Nuristan, Afghanistan. The 4.1 cm morganite has textbook, hexagonal crystal form and is pristine on the front, top and sides. There are even a few, green, pencil tourmalines on the lower right as a further compliment.
2.2 x 1.4 x 1.3 cm. A very fine thumbnail pair of two gemmy and lustrous, nicely striated, intergrown tourmaline crystals from Stak Nala, Pakistan. These have the highly desirable pink terminations and grade downward to pastel-green to dark green. Classic, polychrome, older Stak Nala material from the 1980s finds.
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share specimen![Tourmaline (Var: Rubellite), Quartz from Mokhovaya pegmatite vein, Malkhan pegmatite field (Malchan), Krasnyi Chikoy, Chitinskaya Oblast', Transbaikalia (Zabaykalye), Eastern-Siberian Region, Russia [db_pics/mdpics/MD-226180a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-226180a.jpg)
![Elbaite, Feldspar Group from Himalaya Mine (Himalaya pegmatite; Himalaya dikes), Gem Hill, Mesa Grande District, San Diego Co., California, USA [db_pics/mdpics/MD-226182a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-226182a.jpg)
![Tourmaline (Var: Rubellite) from Mokhovaya pegmatite vein, Malkhan pegmatite field (Malchan), Krasnyi Chikoy, Chitinskaya Oblast', Transbaikalia (Zabaykalye), Eastern-Siberian Region, Russia [db_pics/mdpics/MD-226185a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-226185a.jpg)
![Elbaite from Sosedka pegmatite vein, Malkhan pegmatite field (Malchan), Krasnyi Chikoy, Chitinskaya Oblast', Transbaikalia (Zabaykalye), Eastern-Siberian Region, Russia [db_pics/mdpics/MD-226188a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-226188a.jpg)
![Tourmaline (Var: Rubellite) from Mokhovaya pegmatite vein, Malkhan pegmatite field (Malchan), Krasnyi Chikoy, Chitinskaya Oblast', Transbaikalia (Zabaykalye), Eastern-Siberian Region, Russia [db_pics/mdpics/MD-226191a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-226191a.jpg)
![Elbaite, Quartz from Himalaya Mine (Himalaya pegmatite; Himalaya dikes), Gem Hill, Mesa Grande District, San Diego Co., California, USA [db_pics/mdpics/MD-226226a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-226226a.jpg)
![Elbaite from Barra de Salinas district, Barra de Salinas, Coronel Murta, Jequitinhonha valley, Minas Gerais, Southeast Region, Brazil [db_pics/mdpics/MD-226316a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-226316a.jpg)
![Elbaite from Pederneira claim, São José da Safira, Doce valley, Minas Gerais, Southeast Region, Brazil [db_pics/mdpics/MD-226317a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-226317a.jpg)
![Elbaite from Barra de Salinas district, Barra de Salinas, Coronel Murta, Jequitinhonha valley, Minas Gerais, Southeast Region, Brazil [db_pics/mdpics/MD-226318a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-226318a.jpg)
![Elbaite from Santa Rosa mine, Itambacuri, Doce valley, Minas Gerais, Southeast Region, Brazil [db_pics/mdpics/MD-226319a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-226319a.jpg)
![Elbaite from Santa Rosa mine, Itambacuri, Doce valley, Minas Gerais, Southeast Region, Brazil [db_pics/mdpics/MD-226319b.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-226319b.jpg)
![Elbaite from Virgem da Lapa, Jequitinhonha valley, Minas Gerais, Southeast Region, Brazil [db_pics/mdpics/MD-226321a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-226321a.jpg)
![Elbaite from Cruzeiro mine, São José da Safira, Doce valley, Minas Gerais, Southeast Region, Brazil [db_pics/mdpics/MD-226324a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-226324a.jpg)
![Elbaite from Paprok, Nuristan Province (Nurestan; Nooristan), Afghanistan [db_pics/mdpics/MD-226420a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-226420a.jpg)
![Beryl (Var: Morganite), Elbaite, Albite (Var: Cleavelandite), Quartz from Darra-i-Pech (Pech; Peech; Darra-e-Pech) Pegmatite Field, Nangarhar (Ningarhar) Province, Afghanistan [db_pics/mdpics/MD-226422a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-226422a.jpg)
![Elbaite from Stak Nala, Haramosh Mts., Skardu District, Baltistan, Northern Areas, Pakistan [db_pics/mdpics/MD-227590a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-227590a.jpg)
![Elbaite from Stak Nala, Haramosh Mts., Skardu District, Baltistan, Northern Areas, Pakistan [db_pics/mdpics/MD-227590b.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-227590b.jpg)
![Elbaite from Stak Nala, Haramosh Mts., Skardu District, Baltistan, Northern Areas, Pakistan [db_pics/mdpics/MD-227590c.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-227590c.jpg)