Beryl var: Aquamarine with Spessartine

Item Description

While Pakistan is well-known for producing some of the finest crystals of Aquamarine, they often don't have a lot of variety in terms of associations. Typically minerals like Quartz and Albite are the most common cohorts with Aquamarine from all over the Gilgit-Baltistan region, but this one features beautiful Spessartine Garnets, which are not unheard of, but certainly not seen very often. Several little red-orange colored trapezohedral crystals of Spessartine are sitting on the prism faces of a notably lustrous, GEMMY, beautiful sky blue colored, hexagonal crystal of Aquamarine to create a lovely color contrast. A small "flower" of Muscovite can be seen at the bottom of the piece as well for an added touch. The Spessartines are actually slightly embedded into the surface of the Aqua, and there are some tiny crystals (or at least fragments that are actually underneath the surface, so they're completely included inside. A very attractive miniature specimen with a very pleasing color combination and association of species. 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.