Beryl var: Aquamarine (near ''floater'' specimen)

Item Description

When it comes to fine quality crystallized Aquamarine, Pakistan is the most productive country for specimens in the modern age of mineral collecting. For a few decades now, we've seen a good number of some of the very finest quality Aquamarine specimens collected from the various pegmatites in the high mountains of Pakistan. This specimen dates back to the late 1990s, and is a superb, stout, very sharp , highly lustrous, doubly-terminated (multi-terminated) beautiful blue color thick hexagonal crystal of Aquamarine, with minor associated silvery Muscovite. The top has a smooth flat basal termination, while the other end has been re-crystallized ("re-healed") at some point after it was detached from the pocket wall with dozens of little basal faces. The piece is nearly a complete "floater", but there are a few contacted areas, so it's not 100% pristine. Valued $1,500.
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.