Beryl var. Red Beryl - rare positive/negative cast

Item Description

This specimen is one of those rare minerals that is both beautiful and educational, no matter what the species. It is a red beryl from the single most important location for the variety in the world, and was collected in the Rex Harris days of ownership in the 1980s-1990s. (Red Beryl is, indeed, the red version of beryl, the same mineral as aquamarine or emerald...although we are not technically allowed to call them "red emeralds"!) This specimen features a positive and negative, as if it were a fossil where you see this preservation style more commonly; and so it stands out from a quantity of others that are similar in that they are "red beryl on matrix" by showing you how these are found in nature, when a stroke of luck occurs and the rock splits open perfectly! The crystal is 1.6 cm tall, 8 mm wide, 7 mm deep. It is perched at the apex of the matrix it resides on, and is pristine and without repair (although it has probably been stabilized, as are all such matrix specimens from here). In nearly 40 years of looking at these, including in the heyday when they came out in the Harris era, we have seen only 2 other examples of this positive/negative cast in good condition. The specimen has a value for the red beryl alone (such small cabinet sized specimens usually sell in the $10,000 range, give or take). But, as a set, it is something more unique by far. This specimen-set-of-two comes already with a custom lucite display base uniquely made to display both pieces side by side for show and impact!