Beryl var: Aquamarine (deep color)

Item Description

Aquamarine is typically defined a light blue to sea-green colored variety of Beryl, but every once in a while you'll get a specimen with such deep saturated color, that I almost feel like it shouldn't be called Aquamarine, it literally is BLUE BERYL. With that said, this piece has incredibly strong blue color, especially for the size, as little Beryl crystals don't often have a lot of intensity it terms of their hue/saturation. This crystal has gorgeous etching patterns creating a very ethereal appearance with good internal gemminess (virtually WATER-CLEAR when backlit). A fantastic thumbnail sized specimen that would make a great addition to any gem crystal suite, a collection of Beryls, or minerals of Brazil. Specimen weight is 2.59 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.