Beryl on Feldspar (RARE BI-COLOR crystal!) (ex Will Larson Collection)

Item Description

The famous Little Three Mine in Romona, California is best known for its beautiful vibrant orange Spessartine crystals and blue Topaz crystals, but occassionally you'll see a nice Beryl crystal (typically of the blue or pink variety) on the market. Honestly, we've only seen a handful of these over the years, and matrix specimens are quite rare. This piece hosts a 2.2 cm prismatic, hexagonal Beryl crystal with moderate gemminess aesthetically sitting atop white Albite (var: Cleavelandite) and beige colored Microcline matrix. If you look closely, you'll see that the Beryl crystal has a very faint coloring, although it's not a singular hue, but rather a combination of a very pale shade at the top and a soft pinkish color at the base, meaning this is an incredibly rare BI-COLOR crystal from this prestigous locality! I've seen blue and pink bi-colored Beryls from a few localities around the world, but I can't remember ever seeing another piece like this from the Little Three. This is a very imporant specimen for anybody who collects minerals of San Diego County, gem pegmatite minerals or worldwide gem crystals / Beryls. It's incredibly difficult to put a fair market value on such a unique piece like this, but I could easily see it in the $2,500 range to the right buyer. From the collection of Will Larson, mineral dealer of Pala International, and the son of Bill Larson. The hand-written note accompanying this specimen states that Will acquired the piece in 1995 from a collection.