Epidote (13-piece set) (excellent colors) (rare locality)

Item Description

Here we have a wonderful and notably hard to find 13-piece set of Epidote crystals from the lesser-known Nauchas Farm 14 locality near Gamsberg in Namibia. The specimens range from loose single to multi-crystal groups, but they all feature smooth, sharp, lustrous, well-formed faces, and the majority of them are rather gemmy when strongly backlit with a concentrated light. The best part of this set is that virtually every crystal shows EXCELLENT pleochroism, with an intense chrome-green hue one direction and a beautiful golden color the other direction. You need a VERY strong light to see inside some of the thicker crystals, but they all pass light in some respect or another. The thinner crystals are much easier to backlight. The majority of the pieces are in good shape, though some broken areas can be seen here and there. The pieces honestly reminds me of the old Austrian classics from the Knappenwand (which makes sense as I'm told the Gamberg Area producing "Alpine-type" cleft minerals just like those from the Austrian Alps), but each crystal in this set still has a distinctness all its own.
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. Ron studied mineralogy at Columbia School of Mines, and he was mentored by Dr. Frederick Pough of the American Museum of Natural History. He 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.