A stunning gemmy and transparent gem crystal of the rarest of all topaz varieties, the fancy vivid pink color. This gem specimen has literally been in many of the most important thumbnail collections of the times, that specifically collected such pristine single crystals for one reason or another. This is a glassy and lustrous, transparent, crystal, not merely colorful as are many. Note that this is an older specimen with great provenance, starting from the collection of the dealer/collector who brought out most early Pakistani material (1980s-90s), Herb Obodda. He loved thumbnails, and he was the first to take thumbnails from this region seriously and bring them to the Western market. He maintained a personal thumbnail collection, of which this was part of. It then sold to Jim and Dawn Minette, who arguably had one of the most important TN collections ever assembled. Then to Ralph Clark upon the sale of the Minette collection (yet another of the top five USA TN collectors of the late 1900s and early 2000s). Then to Jim Houran (known for his suite of gem crystals TN's) upon sale of the Clark collection (just known for damned fine thumbnails, across the board!). Finally, this ended up at long last with Alex, after passing through the hands of nearly all but 2 or 3 of the really major longtime thumbnail collectors of the last 50 years! That provenance says a lot, as does the publication history: Jingnan (Tom) Zhang photo Illustrated in Mineralogical Record: Refined Elegance (2022); and also elsewhere.