Lepidolite (excellent crystals) with Quartz

Item Description

Here we have a rarely seen Lepidolite specimen from the famous locality at Paprok, best known for minerals like Tourmaline, Morganite and Kunzite. It has been incredibly rare to find showy display quality specimens of Lepidolite like this over the years, and this one really stands out for its quality and size. This cabinet specimen hosts beautiful, layered groups of pinkish-purple Lepidolite measuring up to 5.7 cm which are aesthetically intergrown with Quartz (the largest crystal in the center of the specimen measures 3.1 cm) sitting on a matrix composed of green tourmaline crystals and white Albite to create a rather three-dimensional specimen. The Lepidolite groups GLOW with color when backlit. Overall, the piece is in good shape, but there is a bit of roughness in spots where it was attached to the pocket wall. I was told this piece came from a single pocket circa 2010-2011, and nothing else like it was found again. Valued $2,500 for size, quality and aesthetics.
From the collection of Armon McPherson, a retired physicist, now living in New Mexico. Armon received his PhD from North Carolina State University in 1985, and worked at the laser laboratory at the University of Illinois at Circle Center. In the summer of 1997, Armon moved to the Argonne National Laboratory where he worked at the Advanced Photon Source, then the world’s largest synchrotron facility dedicated as an x-ray source. In 2001, he was asked to join a team at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque to conduct laser research for DARPA. Finally, staying within Sandia, he transferred to the Z Facility, the world’s most powerful x-ray facility. He retired in the spring of 2017. Armon's introduction to mineral collecting came in the 1980s during graduate school when he attended his first mineral show. He took up the hobby of faceting gems, and focused his early collection on gem crystals, and later transitioned into collecting non-gem species. We are proud to offer specimens from his worldwide mineral collection here for you.