Dioptase (rare locality specimen)

Item Description

Dioptase is not commonly seen from any locality in California, and here we have a rarely seen specimen from Blue Bell Mine in California. The crystals from this locality are never terribly large, often only micros, but there truly aren't many localities for Dioptase in the US, and this piece is a fairly rich example featuring drusy micro crystals intermixed with white Calcite on matrix. The Dioptase crystals are tiny, but we have done our best to photograph them piece with a Canon MP-E 65 mm macro lens to better illustrate the quality.
From the collection of Robert (Bob) Reynolds who passed in August of 2020 (#RR 0250). Bob was a well-known fossil and mineral expert and former Curator of Earth Sciences at the San Bernardino County Museum in California. The rare phyllomanganate-chromate species Reynoldsite was named in his honor in 2011.