Morganite, Quartz, Tourmaline, Lepidolite on Albite

Item Description

Morganite from San Diego is a Holy Grail of many mineral collectors, in part because Morganite first came FROM San Diego's gem pegmatites, when it was recognized by the legendary gemologist Kunz and named in the early 1900s. It was first found in Pala District. And, this is a specimen from Pala, the same geology and the same deposit as the first seen in the turn of the early 1900s. This specimen was collected by the legendary miner Norm Dawson and later passed into the collection of Himalaya Mine owner Bill Larson. He has unarguably built the largest and most important overall collection of San Diego minerals, during his time as mine owner of the Himalaya and active dealer and collector in that area for nearly 70 years. It was a true honor to purchase a large part of that long held collection a few years ago. This remained in his collection for some 30 years, until we purchased this around 2020 and sent it to the lab for its first ever clean and trim. The resulting specimen is a perfect balance of a sharp morganite crystal on matrix. The morganite is 6 cm long and 3 cm thick. It is complete and 360 degrees complete all around, except only a small bit of damage on the left edge, about a 1 x 1 cm area, which we had professionally restored with matching epoxy (it is invisible except under UV light). There is no other damage, and no repairs, which is remarkable for a large San Diego county pegmatite specimen. Lastly, the piece is notable not only for the fine San Diego morganite, but for the overall combination - it is a whole pocket of pegmatite minerals here, in one place! The red tourmaline is the classic Stewart Mine style of hot red-pink rubellite; associated with purple lepidolite, quartz, and some small bits of white cleavelandite. This is literally a San Diego "pocket piece" showing the context in which the morganite would have formed in a pocket with other minerals at the same time, whereas most are simply loose singles. It is an important display specimen with great provenance, from the Bill Larson Collection. Valued $10k-plus.