Microcline with Beryl var: Aquamarine

Item Description

A lovely association specimen from this distinctive and renowned Chinese locality, beloved for its excellent Beryl crystals (Aquamarine), which form in unusually tabular examples, a rare style for this blue variety of the species. The main focus on this piece is actually a blocky white crystal of Microcline Feldspar, which measures 2.7 cm, long, and is isolated and free-standing atop the matrix. Several gemmy, tabular, pale blue, lustrous Aquamarine crystals measuring up to 1.4 cm can be seen on the piece as well, along with a light coating of Muscovite Mica in areas, creating a nice combination / contrast of color. A few prismatic Quartz crystals are present as well. It's rare to find a single Microcline crystal alone on matrix like this from Pingwu, and looking closely, I can't find any damage. At first I thought the crystal might show some kind of twinning (possibly Carlsbad habit), but after a good look with a loupe, I think it's a single un-twinned crystal. A lovely piece of this classic (or soon-to-be classic material) from one of the top specimen producing mines in China over the last 25 years.
om the collection of Dr. Stephen Smale. Along with amassing one of the finest private mineral collections in the world, Steve is a renowned mathematician. His accomplishments include being awarded the Fields Medal in 1966 along with being the awarded the Wolf Prize in mathematics in 2007. You can read Steve's bio on the Mineralogical Record website ( https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/smalestephen/ ) or on Wikipedia.