Beryl var: Aquamarine

Item Description

Since the 1990s, there have been many excellent quality Aquamarine crystals mined in the Shigar Valley. These are certainly among the best examples of the blue variety of Beryl ever found. Over the years, we've had plenty of single crystals (many of which were complete "floaters"), along with beautiful multi-crystal groups, but it's notably rare to find "floater" GROUPS like this piece. This specimen features a few very sharp, lustrous, beautiful light blue colored hexagonal prisms of Aquamarine, with no matrix. The base of the specimen was separated from the matrix during formation, but later re-crystallized ("re-healed"), so it's a complete "floater". Actually the crystal on the base of the piece is re-crystallized on both ends, so this was the connection point where the specimen was attached to the matrix. The two larger crystals are rather gemmy, and the little "sidecar" crystal at the base of the piece is essentially 100% WATER-CLEAR. I can't find any major damage on the piece, just some very tiny nicks in a few spots. A very attractive and hard to find specimen that would make a great addition to any gem crystal suite, a Beryl collection or a collection of minerals from Pakistan. Specimen weight is 48.2 grams. This piece comes to us from the legendary Ron Romanella (February 28, 1932 - October 24, 2022), a well-known gem and mineral dealer from New York City. He studied mineralogy at Columbia School of Mines, and he was mentored by Dr. Frederick Pough of the American Museum of Natural History, and learned about the business side from well-known mineral dealers Hugh Ford and Maurice Hammoneau. Ron himself was a mentor to other successful East Coast mineral dealers such as Larry Conklin, Herb Obodda and even employed Dave Wilber for a time. He largely transitioned out of selling minerals as his business focused more on gems for the last few decades, and his sons Michael and Jerry have been running the family business in Scottsdale for many years now. With that said, Ron was one of the great powerhouse mineral dealers in the US for many years, offering fine quality specimens and gem crystals from classic and contemporary localities. Among his top achievements, is that Ron is credited with importing the first known crystals of Tanzanite into the US in the 1960s.