Mushroom Tourmalines (ex Bill Larson Collection)

Item Description

A beautiful and aesthetic "Mushroom" Tourmaline specimen from Momeik featuring the classic pink and black bi-color for which the material is known. It should be noted that the species is likely Olenite, which is quite rare in terms of Tourmaline, and these piece from Momeik are the best and most well-known examples. This particular specimen is important and rare due to the fact that there are two crystals intergrown on the same specimen, which is quite difficult to find as you often only see single crystals off matrix in this material. There is a light coating of Quartz on the back of the crystals, giving them a unique "frosted" appearance. No major damage, the only roughness is on the base of the specimen where it was removed from the pocket wall. A beautiful, fine quality and now very hard to find specimen of this classic material. PLEASE NOTE: All mining at Mogok is at a complete standstill. The combination of the civil war in Myanmar and the COVID pandemic have left the area abandoned, and it is unclear when or if mining will again resume. With that said, it is likely that the price of fine minerals from Myanmar will certainly rise in the coming months / years, especially if nothing new will be coming out any time soon, and even when the mining resumes, the asking prices overseas will almost certainly be higher than what we were used to seeing in the past. If you collect minerals from Myanmar, pick these up fast while they are still available, because good pieces will be hard to find for a while it seems. From the collection of Bill ("Burma Bill") Larson of Fallbrook, California (Collection #447). Bill is a well-known gem and mineral dealer as well as a miner and collector. Bill traveled the world for decades in search of fine gems and minerals, and was directly involved in the in-person acquisition and importation of superb specimens and stones from Myanmar (Burma). You can read his biography at https://mineralogicalrecord.co...