LB-176
Smoky Quartz
Mogok Valley Zone, Mandalay Region, Myanmar (Burma)
Small Cabinet, 8.4 x 3.4 x 2.7 cm
Ex. William (Bill) Larson
$1,950.00 Payment Plan Available
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This is a super unusual Smoky Quartz crystal that displays what is called pseudosymmetry making it look like a contact twin of some kind, but it sadly is not when the angles are analyzed by the few people who can judge this kind of trickery in quartz. It is nevertheless a fascinating and complicated specimen crystal! It shows almost a mirror image on either side of the symmetry plane resulting in the chisel-shape termination and highlights the "reflection" of a pair of small triangular faces on either side at the termination. There are complex geometric growth patterns on most faces along with horizontal striations perpendicular to its length. This crystal is water clear throughout its length with a gorgeous internal brightness to it, except only near the bottom where it is slightly clouded and this subtle contrast actually adds to the interest of the piece. There's a trace of chatter along the edge of the termination, otherwise the crystal is pristine. To further explain this oddity, I am reprinting a quote from one of our consulting experts Bob Morgan here: "Sorry, it's no twin but a very nice consistently right handed crystal - x faces on alternate prism faces. For it to be confirmed as a Brazil Law twin there would be some indication of left handedness too. Such tabular shape is fairly rare and could be called pseudo orthorhombic. This has small adjacent r and z triangular faces equal in size on each side and similarly equal ones over the two larger prism faces. Which ones are r and which ones are z? The x faces provide the clue. The r faces are above the prism faces hosting the x faces. One r face is very large as is to be expected. The other large terminal face is a z face - not to be expected, because r faces are generally larger than z faces. And two of the r faces are small and as small as the smallest z faces. This is probably more than you wanted to know, but this is an interesting crystal not just in appearance but also in unusual crystallographic features."

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