A very rare example of large amethyst crystals from CALIFORNIA, of all places. This old deposit has been worked intermittently over the years, although I was given to understand this is an older specimen and has been in a collection for at least 2 decades. It is complete all around, and a fairly surprising item from California. Joe Budd Photos.

I LOVE THESE THINGS! WHAT A NEAT EXAMPLE OF INTERESTING MINERALOGY, having talc replace a hard mineral like quartz !?! This is an incredibly rare pseudomorph of talc after quartz, on massive talc, from old Germany. Such large pieces are almost impossible to find. These pseudomorphs are quite old, and this one dates to the collection of Sir Robert Ferguson (1769-1840). He was amember of Parliament and the nobility from Kirkaldy, Scotland (he had stopped collecting by 1810, it is thought). I purchased it in London when hs colleciton was dispersed in 1998, and sold it to a collector at that time. Unique to this location, the crystals are very sharp and have a soft vitreous luster. One of the hardest pseudomorphs to find in any condition and this piece is nearly perfect, AND OF LARGE SIZE. As you can imagine, this is a "must have" for any pseudomorph collector or historic mineral lover - and the two old labels are a bonus. For more on Robert Ferguson, click here: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/ferguson-robert-1769-1840 Joe Budd Photos.

This specimen is a floater, COMPLETE and terminated all around with all three of the quartzes even doubly-terminated. The bottom termination on the emerald is rough, but its a termination. The piece must have gronw rapidly in pocket and then fallen from the matrix, while solution of emerald was still flowing through to cap off and continue growth on the once-broken termination at bottom. The top faces are sharp and lustrous, ingrown with the diagonally-attached quartzes (again, all doubly-terminated!). I had a big doubt when I got offered this down in Brazil that, for the size and aspect, it could be from Brumado. Yet, there are two characteristic Brumado-style magnesite crystals perched off the bottom-right hand face of the emerald. Also, to prove it further, there are a few 5mm, green, disc-shaped uvite crystals present (on the left , attached to the emerald; and another included inside the left tip of the upwards-pointing quartz crystal). Aside from a very clean (nearly invisible!) repair at about the 3/4-up point, it is pristine and complete all around with no damage. It is not gemmy, but it is definitely green - and 4 inches tall. A very surprising, unique style for a Brumado beryl, striking because it is just so different from the norm. Weight is 123 grams

A most unusual, very colorful quartz specimen which has not only display aesthetics but also locality value and provenance. It is a very large example of this rare style of quartz from Switzerland, considered a highly desirable part of any Alpine collection because they have so much color pizzazz, and are so unlike other Swiss quartz styles with which we are more familiar. The crystal is complete all around, a floater, with no points of attachment that is fully terminated on both ends. It is pristine save for a few tiny, insignificant dings. The color is unearthly, as if you took the iron and embedded it in layers to yield a rainbow of refracted colors - indeed, you SEE rainbows shimmering just under the surface on the main faces of the front. This is not citrine (where iron is part of the crystal structure unit cell), rather it is quartz with iron stain incorporated into the matrix but not part of the crystal structure. This specimen was purchased by Pete Bancroft in the 1950s or 1960s, he recalls. He sold it to a local quartz collector in San Diego area in the 1970s (Alice Walters), and there it remained until she sold her collection about 4 years ago. It then went into the most prominent collection of classic, cabinet-sized Swiss minerals in the US, that I know of: that of Karl Kempf in Arizona (a longtime mineral colelctor specializing in this region). This collection was sold off by Wayne Thompson last fall, and now the piece is back on the market. Original label in Bancroft's hand is included.

A very pretty, very bright and lustrous, bicolored quartz with both amethyst and smoky zoning. From a small pocket in 1968. From the specialized Maine thumbnail collection of Jim Mann (although technically a miniature, this squeezes into a TN box when mounted diagonally).