Beryl var: Emerald (rare Italian Alpine locality)

Item Description

Here we have an attractive and rarely seen Emerald specimen from the Italian Alps. This thumbnail specimen comes from Pizzo Marcio, which is one of the most well-known Emerald occurrences in the Alps. The locality was discovered by Vittorio Mattioli on June 30, 1974 (mindat.org). While Emerald gets its green color from either chromium and/or vanadium, the posting on mindat.org also states that there are traces of 196 ppm of Cs, 196 ppm of Rb, and 38 ppm of Sc in these crystals. This piece hosts a few of medium green colored, vitreous, hexagonal prisms measuring up to 9 mm, sitting on the classic schist matrix with a bit of white Calcite. The crystals are in decent shape, though there is a bit of roughness in spots. They show good translucency when backlit. A nice representative example of these uncommon Emeralds.
From the collection of Bill ("Burma Bill") Larson of Fallbrook, California. Bill is a well-known gem and mineral dealer (Pala International) as well as a miner and collector. Bill traveled the world for decades in search of fine gems and minerals, and was directly involved in the in-person acquisition and importation of superb specimens from many important gem-producing localities. You can read his biography at https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/larsonwilliam-f/ .
The piece comes with an old hand-written label from the collection of Claudio and Marisa Albertini. Claudio is an accomplished mineral collector and author, who specializes in minerals from the Ossola Valley (Val d'Ossola).