From the famous California Gem Mine, also known for its incredible Benitoites, this superb, small-cabinet specimen perfectly displays a cluster of sharp Neptunites, a titanium mineral rare in such crystals. In fact, the best clearly came from here, and long ago. Sharp, mirror-like, and jet-black, these Neptunites are set on a contrasting matrix of white Natrolite and serpentinite country rock. The largest crystal is about 2.6 cm, and there is even a hint of the reddish fire that you sometimes see with just the right light. It is quite rare to find the Neptunites clustered in rear-parallel fashion (a la Azurites), and the location of the cluster, central and forward on the matrix, gives this piece a balanced and beautiful aesthetic that is first-rate. Now that the deposit is literally strip-mined and almost gone, specimens of this caliber are unlikely to ever be found again.