Himalaya Mine Blue Cap Tourmaline ex. Bill Larson coll.

Item Description

This is one of those rare San Diego treasures that the locals call a "Himalaya BlueCap" in contrast to the much more famous Blue Cap tourmalines from the Queen Mine finds in 1972-1973, relatively nearby in San Diego. Blue terminations are truly rare on tourmaline and, any blue cap is a good one, so to speak. The Queen Mine crystals have lustrous blue terminations, and the few that came out of the Himalaya simply do not (it is a matte termination as you see here), but the pink body color is great and they do have a narrow blue zone atop. The blue zone is smaller, less intense than Queen Mine material (which is generally priced at a fortune and not on the market anyhow), but still...it is there. These came out in different times and different pockets, in a zone worked by Bill Larson from 1982-88 in the Himalaya Mine, underground. This is one of the most robust, large examples found by the mine owner, and self-collected in the mine. It has great body color and a typically Himalaya thin blue band atop. It has no damage except a small chip on one edge, which is very minimal for this highly disrupted pegmatite where most larger crystals do have damage and repairs. This happens to be the one that Bill kept in his own collection of important Himalaya Mine specimens, and so is from the lifelong San Diego collection which he started as a child, and has been working at for nearly 70 years. This was on display in his shop, The Collector, for decades and comes with his showcase display base (simply a plastic block with an information sticker on it). These turn up so rarely, they are very difficult to value on the public market, but we have seen crystals half this size sell for $2500-5000 and this is not only bigger but more massive than others. It is literally the one the mine owner kept for himself. 295 grams, so it is quite hefty.