Blue Beryl (ex Willard Wulff Collection)

Item Description

When people think of Arizona minerals, Beryl is typically not the first thing that comes to their minds. I don't know if this piece came from the locality in the Sierrita Mountains, it was simply labeled as coming from Pima County. I've seen a few of these pieces over the years, but they're always few and far between on the market. A sharp, prismatic, rich color hexagonal crystal of blue Beryl (almost too rich to be called Aquamarine in my mind) with good translucency when backlit. They may not be the finest quality Beryls in the world, but they're a great rarity from Arizona, and certainly worth picking up if you collect thumbnails, Arizona minerals or general Beryls. This piece comes to us from the collection of Willard W. Wulff (1904-1998) of Colorado Springs, Colorado, a prominent figure and collector of Colorado minerals. Wulff was one of the founding members of the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society in 1936. You can read Willard's bio on the Mineralogical Record website here ( http://www.minrec.org/labels.asp?colid=1528 ). The piece is mounted in a "Perky" box with a typed label from Wulff's collection on the base.