Usually, papagoite is dispersed in veils, but in this piece it is extremely concentrated in richness and in color saturation, right at the tip! This is a phenomenal crystal with unusually vivid coloration. The termination is sharp and complete, unusually pristine. Note also the slight wisps of copper inside, dispersed in the zone of deep blue papagoite. A classic, unique to this locality, such crystals are highly desirable in this quality. Papagoite is much rarer, here, than the ajoite inclusions. MUCH better in person, this is one of the sharpest such examples that I expect to be able to offer. It is from new finds in late 2009.

This is a razor-sharp crystal with a termination so sharp you can literally cut yourself on it. The quartz hosts an internal phantom generation of quartz, that is richly included by powder blue ajoite. Now, often the inclusions are dispersed in the quartz , but seldom do you see a phantom within, concentrating the color as this one does. The crystal is complete all around, and shows extraordinary clarity looking through to the phantom zone within. I have seen literally hundreds of these, and in this size range, few have stood out to me as starkly as this piece, which I saw at the Munich show with a direct source. Moreover, it is complete and sharp, and shows off the inclusions without need of polishing. It really is one of the sharpest and finest in its size class. After cleaning, we found that it is technically a floater - rough at the bottom, but microcrystallized and complete.

This is a razor-sharp crystal with a termination so sharp you can literally cut yourself on it. The quartz hosts an internal phantom generation of quartz, that is richly included by deep blue papagoite. Now, often the inclusions are dispersed in the quartz , but seldom do you see a phantom within. Here, the phantom somehow concentrated the papagoite, so that the papagoite marks the entire right edge of the original phantom crystal inside. The crystal is complete all around, and shows extraordinary clarity looking through to the phantom zone within. I have seen literally hundreds of these, and in this size range, few have stood out to me as starkly as this piece, which I saw at the Munich show with a direct source (these few i offer here all apparently came from the same pocket, as they are similar in size and unusual sharpness and transparency). Moreover, it is complete and sharp, and shows off the inclusions without need of polishing.

I have seen only a very few blue topaz in matrix from Brazil, and not another such as this, with a sharp blue gem perched on a large quartz crystal! At 8 x 7.5 x 4 cm, the topaz is a good size and significant on its own, and it is literally stuck in a crevasse between two intergrown quartz points. The quartz is terminated, thought etched in back. It is even nearly pristine - just a few very trivial dings mar the large quartz. The topaz itself is pristine and complete all around except for a few very nearly invisible contact points where it attached to another bit of quartz. Even its underside is floating free and clear of the quartz and is roughly terminated, making it a "floater". The top termination is SHARP and has a broad chisel-point termination, leading to razor-sharp, etched side faces. Small bits of sparkling, micaceous-looking lepidolite cling to the center of the topaz and run down its front in a vein , to the quartz. Overall, this is a unique specimen, large and impactful as it sets the topaz high up and easily lit. In fact, the photos do not do it justice. When backlit, the light goes through the quartz and topaz both, and the piece glows. I have not seen another like this, and certainly I feel at the price point, another is unlikely. It could as easily be twice the price, but that I got it reasonably myself in a large specimen, in need of a trim. So we took off a big chunk of massive quartz at the bottom, and now the piece stands quite nicely on its own, and is more balanced.

This is an outstanding, GLASSY AND GEMMY cluster of amethyst from this famous and very sparsely producing locale. It has the deepest purple, grape-juice colored amethyst cores you could want, grading to a clear zone at the very tips. The display face you can look right down into, as the glassy, transparent surfaces facing front let you look deep within. Having handled a number of these, including the famous Romero collection pieces, I can say that while not the biggest, this is among the best for quality you can ask for. It is nearly pristine, and in fact you have to look really close to find just one ding on the front at all (a tiny nick off the smaller sub-termination). Although larger amethyst crystals occur elsewhere, for my tastes the combination of the color and qualities in great Guerrero material make them the world's best of species. This is an excellent example of why I say that. It is from the Marc Weill collection, but would have been most likely mined in the 1970s or 1980s.