This is a classic oldstyle Himalaya Mine crystal with a color that is more red-purple than pink-red as is more typical for the mine. It was, they think, mined in the Ralph Potter era (before the mid-1960s) prior to the ownership of Pala Intl. After mining, it went into the Perkin Sams collection in Midland, Texas, which later was donated to the Houston Museum of Natural History (and then exchanged back to the current Himalaya Mine owner Pala Properties in later years). The piece is fat and massive, at 150 grams. It has INTENSE color and practically glows when even minimally backlit. Again, in contrast to more modern pieces which tend to pink, this is a deeply robust hue with a very saturated coloration. It is complete all around, though it has a slight crack at the bottom and looks like it was held together by the adhered crystals of cleavelandite. I would have sworn this is not repaired, but the former owner does confirm that the crack went through and it was repaired. The repair then, is so clean, that one cannot be sure on looking...and at the base, anyhow out of the display line of sight. The matrix associations of white cleavelandite and purple lepidolite really highlight the color and accentuate the piece. This is NOT just a typical quality pink Himalaya. Liberated from an old German collection at the Munich show some years back, this was long in the well-known tourmaline collection of Klaus Neumann.Joe Budd Photos