Treasure
Merelani Mine, Arusha, Tanzania
Size: 5.9 x 5.1 x 3.3 cm
Watch Video
|
|
|
I have seen a couple of fine Chrome-Tourmalines over the years but this specimen is just breathtaking and for sure the best one I ever came across. With almost 6 cm in diameter this piece lies heavily in hands and loses nothing of its beauty when turned around. It is a perfect floater, a short doubly terminated tourmaline cluster of exceptional shape. There are gapfills at the frontside but which are totally acceptable on a masterpiece like this. One major aspect about this specimen is the fantastic bright green color that virtually explodes from this piece at direct illumination. I got this piece from an old collection in Vienna and I am extremely pleased about that. The former owner did many trips to Tanzania himself but never layed hands on another comparable piece. A world-class piece of pure brilliance!
Dara-i-Pech pegmatite field, Chapa Dara District, Kunar, Afghanistan
Size: 14.3 x 3.2 x 2.4 cm
Watch Video
|
||
This tremendous emerald green tourmaline is gemmy from bottom to top and needs only very little backlight to reveal its mesmerizing quality! All sides show superb luster right up to the termination which is somewhat frosted but very well developed and undamaged! The overall condition is great with only few very minimal abrasions at the sides. A side-crytal at the backside is broken but re-healed and not visible from the front. Apart from that the crystal is in exceptionally fine shape with no repairs or fills. Massive size, gorgeous quality and absolutely brilliant green color make this a vibrant crystal of great impact!
Huanzala Mine, Huallanca, Bolognesi Province, Áncash, Peru
Size: 7.4 x 5.6 x 4.5 cm
Watch Video
|
||
Large ocathedral fluorite of characteristic pink color are grouped on a dark, contrasting matrix of sphalerite, galena and pyrite. The strong contrast and the superb crystal quality are absolutely fantastic and perfectly arranged on this masterpiece. This piece is out of the one-time important 1981 find. At the center of those transparent crystals you can perceive a faint spot of blurry green which instantly identifies this piece as a Huanzala fluorite as opposed to similar looking Alpine fluorite. The backside is mostly crystallized with some contacts but no damage. Brilliant luster, best condition and outstanding aesthetics are combined on this spectacular cabinet-size piece of prime importance.
Shigar Valley, Skardu District, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
Size: 9.7 x 8.3 x 3.8 cm
Watch Video
|
|
|
A real eye-catcher of unusually sweeping aesthetics! The aquamarine shows a charming, intensive blue color and is gemmy, especially towards the terminations! The terminations themselves vary, some are flat, but the thicker of the two main crystals has a very well developed polyhedral termination! Like an antennae, a thin crystal stand out from the top, which is very lovely and – surprisingly – intact! The aquamarine is associated with some jet-black schorl and white albite, which makes for a stunning contrast! All in all this piece is even a floater with perfectly crystallized albite as a matrix! There is no noteworthy damage, only one re-healed schorl, the rest is complete and perfect!
Mogok Township, Mandalay Division, Burma (Myanmar)
Size: 23 x 19 x 10.5 cm
Watch Video
|
||
This quartz in combination with mica is a unique and stunningly beautiful specimen of great museum size!
The single quartz crystal is colorless and transparent like glass with a beautifully structured and highly lustrous surface.
It is accompanied by large translucent tabular mica and some snow-white feldspar at the bottom. The mica has a marvelous silvery shimmer to it that supports the superb quartz crystal in a gorgeous way!
The condition is amazingly good, only the tip has a very well done fill.
I have seen a couple of nice quartz specimens coming from Myanmar but this is for sure the most dramatic and significant of them all!
Have a look on our video for a better comprehension of quality and 3-dimensional shape!
It is without doubt an impressive eye-catcher that amazes with super brilliant quality and sheer size!
Mogok Township, Mandalay Division, Burma (Myanmar)
Size: 5.7 x 5.1 x 1.8 cm
Watch Video
|
|
|
When it comes to high level ruby specimens the color is one of the key cornerstones! This dramatic specimen shows the deep striking red that everyone wishes for - the one you can confidently call „pigeon-blood red“ - combined with gemmy crystal quality and superb wet-look luster on all sides. The ruby shows unusual 3-dimensional growth but is all crystallized with triangular surface structures all over and distinctive shapes and edges. Very unusual and distinctive! The crystal is complete without any damage at all. The light from the back is what brings the piece to live: The thick massy ruby virtually explodes with its gorgeous color! The overall aesthetics of this fabulous ruby crystal on shiny translucent marble is outstanding in every way. The striking contrast is emphasizing the ruby while the beautifully shaped marble really does its job as a support. A major specimen of superb quality and beauty!
Milpillas Mine, Cuitaca, Mun. de Santa Cruz, Sonora, Mexico
Size: 5.2 x 4.3 x 3.5 cm
Watch Video
|
|
|
The aesthetic of this piece exactly is what advanced mineral collectors are searching for. The perfect proportion of this beautiful, malachite encrusted matrix and the eye-catching and perfect azurite crystal, combined with the striking contrast to accentuate the main crystal are plainly awesome. It’s more than hard to find a specimen of this quality from the famous Milpillas Mine – especially as this is probably the most aesthetic one I’ve ever seen – so I was lucky to trade this specimen, which was the only way to get it. Fantastic sparkling luster, a richly detailed surface structure and its utter beauty are what define this piece. Marvelous in person! Ex Peter Megaw
|
||
This wonderful play of colors is truly remarkable, even for opal. This specimen of "tridymite crystobalite opal" is out of a unique pocket of crystallized opal that was opened in spring 2014. While most of this mineral is for cutting only, this pocket provided the market with a limited amount of crystallized botryoidal opal. You will find a report about this find in the "Extralapis - Namibia". This very specimen is also pictured at the Mineralogical Record, vol. 45, no. 5, pg. 586. The coating of opal is grown on a matrix of smoky quartz. In some places where the coating is thin you can see the shape of the quartz as the basis of this specimen. Some contacted zones are visible but don't manage to distract from the overall beauty. Without discussion, this is one of the most impressive and striking specimens of the 2014 find!
Tiefengletscher, Urseren, Uri, Switzerland
Size: 10.6 x 9.8 x 5 cm
Watch Video
|
||
With a size of 10.6 cm, where alone the main crystal has almost 9.5 cm, this compact specimen is rather impressive! Most special however is the fantastic quality. The fine surface structure is highly lustrous und without even the slightest damage which is exceedingly rare for gwindel specimens! The quartz body is virtually free of internal cracks save for the very lowest parts where it is grown on a make-up of small quartz crystals. And even that matrix is near-perfect with only minor peripheral contacts! The crystals satiated, warm brown color enhances the clarity and luster in a nice way even at low illumination. Set on the nicely crystallized backside is a second gwindel which is piggyback carried by the main crystal and provides very much unique aesthetics! Combining great size, shape, clarity, color and overall perfection this is for sure one of the very best smoky quartz gwindels that I had the luck to obtain! After it was found at the Tiefen glacier it has been in the personal collection of the American collector Gene Meieran for the past 20 years or so.
Urandu Mine, Shingus Valley, Shigar, Pakistan
Size: 5.6 x 0.9 x 0.5 cm
Watch Video
|
||
The Shingus area has produced some of the finest väyrynenite specimens the world has seen. But still this material is extremely rare and almost all pieces on the market are either unattractive clumps or, if you are lucky, nice but tiny crystals.
This piece is impressive 5.6 cm long, sharp, gemmy and of intensive pink to orange color!
An outstanding specimen for the rare material that strikes with size and quality alike!
There is a small ding at the terminations side but which is contact induced rather than damaged and is hardly discernible at all. The main chisel-tip is all perfect and sharp! There are three repairs in the lower half.
Despite these small issues this is a rather spectacular specimen for the material. Especially the upper region is completely clear and without even the smallest inclusion.
The color is rather strong and open, just as you can see it in the pictures and our video.
A fantastic specimen of exceptional quality that is close to impossible for this rare species!
Huanggang Mine, Hexigten Banner, Inner Mongolia, China
Size: 12.9 x 11.7 x 10.1 cm
Watch Video
|
|
|
|
|
Pink octahedral fluorite from this deposit has been known for some time now, but in summer this year (2019) the Huanggang Mine has set a new level for this mineral! A large number of fluorite crystals has been unearthed some of which reach dramatic size and rich pink color! Still, the large majority of crystals are rather pale in comparison. Nice, but not great.
This heavy weight specimen on the other hand has what it takes: the glassy crystal needs only very little backlight illumination to reveal the dark cherry red color that is so rarely found! The single octahedral crystal is very well defined and dominant. Some smaller attached fluorites are important for the overall aesthetics. The surface is lustrous and beautifully structured. A thin layer right beneigh that surface is somewhat clouded but below that, the crystal is all clear and vibrant! Apart from a contact at the backside, this specimen is all complete and in best condition. Remarkable for a piece of such tremendous size and quality! Fluorite at its best!
Zinggenstock, Grimsel area, Hasli valley, Berner Oberland, Switzerland
Size: 19 x 14 x 8.3 cm
Watch Video
|
||
Zinggenstock is home of many famous finds of high class smoky quartz for hundreds of years. Superb quality, top aesthetics with a characteristic grey-white matrix and in - rarer cases - the combination with pink fluorite has earned it a name in the ranks of the worlds most important mineral locales!
The specimen we are presenting is a blast of pure sparkling beauty! The quartz shows just amazingly good quality: Best see-through clarity, wet-look luster and perfectly sharp development. Terminations are pointed or chisel-tip and nearly all flawless. The longest crystal is 8.5 cm long but even more dramatic is the one crystal that protrudes from the top which is 7 cm long and 2.3 cm broad - both crystals are perfect!
With very best smoky quartz quality, elegant composition and impressive overall size, this smoky quartz from Zinggenstock is a real eye-catcher with no downsides of any kind!